BX  7260  .E3  E93  1904 

Exercises  commemorating  the 
two-hundredth  anniversary 


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in  2009  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Tiieoiogicai  Seminary  Library 


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JONATHAN     EDAVARDS 

1703 1Q03 


EXERCISES  COMMEMORATING 


TWO-HUNDREDTH  ANNIVERSARY 

OF   THE 

y 

BIRTH  OF  JONATHAN  EDWARDS 

HELD   AT 

ANDOVER  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

OCTOBER  4  AND  5 
1903 


Printed  under  the  direction  of  the  Faculty 


Andover,  Massachusetts 

THE    ANDOVER    PRESS 

1904 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED 
TO  THE  MEMORY  OF 

EGBERT   COFFIN    SMYTH,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

CHRISTIAN  SCHOLAR 

THEOLOGIAN,       HISTORIAN 

PROFESSOR  IN  ANDOVER  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 

1863-1904 


PREFACE 

As  the  oldest  Congregational  school  of  theology  in 
America,  Andover  Seminary  esteemed  it  a  duty,  while 
she  also  counted  it  an  honor,  to  celebrate  the  bicentenary 
of  America's  foremost  theologian.  Within  her  lecture- 
rooms  the  system  of  Jonathan  Edwards  has  been  diligently 
studied  and  sympathetically  expounded.  Her  first  pro- 
fessor of  sacred  theology.  Dr.  Leonard  Woods,  is 
commonly  represented  as  a  mediator  between  the  two 
divisions  of  orthodox  Congregationalism  in  his  day,  yet  in 
substance  he  was  a  vigorous  advocate  of  the  Edwardean 
system,  and  his  successor,  Professor  Park,  was  even  more 
widely  known  as  its  interpreter.  If  Edwardeanism  no 
longer  controls  the  doctrinal  instruction  at  Andover,  the 
fact  is  due  to  no  lack  of  reverence,  on  the  part  of  her 
teachers,  for  the  power  of  philosophical  analysis  and  logi- 
cal construction  which  has  made  Edwards  famous  for  all 
time,  or  for  the  fundamental  truths  which  he  strove  in 
thought  to  apprehend,  but  rather  to  causes  whose  opera- 
tion no  philosophical  or  theological  system  of  the  past  is 
able  permanently  to  withstand. 

The  aim  of  the  bicentennial  celebration  was  not  merely 
to  honor  the  memory  of  a  great  Christian  leader,  but  also 
to  attempt  a  discriminating  estimate  of  the  enduring  value 
of  his  work, —  an  attempt  which  the  lapse  of  time  and  the 
subsidence  of  dogmatic  strife  have  at  last  brought  within 
the  range  of  possibility.  Accordingly,  in  addition  to 
representatives  of  her  own  faculty,  the  Seminary  invited 
scholars  of  widely  different  antecedents,  from  outside  of 
New  England,  to  participate  in  the  proceedings.  The 
reader  of  the  papers  here  published  will  observe  differ- 
ences in  point  of  view  which  will  at  least  relieve  the 
record  of  monotony,  and,  it  is  hoped,  will  not  detract 
from  its  value. 


PREFACE 

The  celebration  began  on  Sunday,  October  fourth,  with 
public  worship  in  the  Chapel,  where  a  large  congregation 
gathered  to  listen  to  the  commemorative  sermon  by  the 
Reverend  William  R.  Richards,  D.D.,  an  alumnus  of  the 
Seminary,  now  pastor  of  the  Brick  Presbyterian  Church 
in  New  York.  For  the  public  exercises  on  Monday  after- 
noon a  distinguished  audience  was  assembled,  including  a 
large  number  of  alumni  and  other  ministers  from  neigh- 
boring towns,  together  with  professors  from  Harvard  and 
from  Boston  University.  The  church  had  been  handsomely 
decorated  for  the  occasion,  and  portraits  of  President  and 
Mrs.  Edwards,  loaned  by  Miss  Park,  stood  on  either  side 
of  the  pulpit.  Professor  Day  presided,  and  on  behalf  of 
the  Seminary  extended  a  welcome  to  the  guests.  By  way 
of  introduction  to  the  more  formal  papers,  Professor 
Platner  sketched  in  outline  the  religious  conditions  of 
New  England  in  the  time  of  Edwards,  after  which  Pro- 
fessor Woodbridge,  of  Columbia  University,  presented  a 
critical  analysis  of  Edwards's  work  as  a  philosopher.  At 
the  close  of  this  session  the  invited  guests  adjourned  to 
Bartlet  Chapel,  where  a  reception  was  held  and  supper  was 
served.  Many  took  advantage  of  this  opportunity  to  ex- 
amine the  loan  exhibition,  consisting  of  the  principal 
editions  of  Edwards's  works,  unpublished  manuscripts  and 
letters,  and  other  objects  of  historical  interest.^ 

Another  large  audience  assembled  for  the  evening  ex- 
ercises, at  which  Professor  Hincks  presided.  The  first 
address  was  a  sympathetic  presentation  of  the  salient 
features  of  Edwards's  theology  by  Professor  Smyth,  who 
was  a  life-long  student  of  the  subject.  A  poem,  en- 
titled "  A  Witness  to  the  Truth,"  was  read  by  its  author, 
an  Andover  alumnus,  the  Reverend  Samuel  V.  Cole,  D.D., 

'  A  list  of  the  most  important  objects  exhibited  will  be  found  in 
Appendix  II. 


PREFACE 

President  of  Wheaton  Seminary.  It  elicited  much 
favorable  comment.  An  interesting  feature  of  the  pro- 
gram was  the  reading  of  a  congratulatory  message^  from 
the  Senate  of  the  United  Free  Church  College,  Glasgow, 
which  formed  a  suitable  introduction  to  the  closing  ad- 
dress of  the  day,  by  Professor  James  Orr,  D.D.,  of  Glas- 
gow, who  spoke  upon  "  The  Influence  of  Edwards."  The 
exercises  concluded  with  a  piece  of  ancient  psalmody, 
sung  by  the  congregation  to  the  tune  of  St.  Martins. 

The  memorial  sermon,  the  poem,  and  the  addresses  of 
Professors  Smyth  and  Woodbridge  are  here  printed  prac- 
tically without  change.  Professor  Orr's  address  is  slightly 
enlarged.  Professor  Platner's  address,  which  was  not 
read  from  manuscript,  will  be  found  to  vary  somewhat 
from  the  form  in  which  it  was  delivered.  In  Appendix  I 
are  printed  extracts  from  hitherto  unpublished  notes  by 
Edwards,  collected  by  Professor  Smyth  in  illustration  of 
statements  made  in  his  address. 

Thanks  are  due  to  Dr.  Owen  II.  Gates  for  aid  in  cor- 
recting the  proof  sheets,  and  to  Miss  Mary  W.  Dwight 
for  completing  Professor  Smyth's  copy  and  for  a  careful 
revision  of  the  proofs. 

The  sudden  death  of  Professor  Smyth  lends  a  peculiar 
interest  to  the  publication  of  this  little  book,  for  it  con- 
tains the  final  labors  of  his  pen.  He  had  taken  the 
deepest  interest  in  the  Edwards  celebration  from  the 
beginning,  and  was  earnestly  desirous  that  the  printed 
record  should  be  not  unworthy  of  its  subject.  It  is 
fitting  that  the  volume  should  forever  be  closely  associated 
with  Dr.  Smyth,  to  whose  memory  it  is  affectionately 
dedicated.  J.  W.  P. 

Andover,  May  12,  1904. 

'  This  message,  with  reply,  is  printed  in  Appendix  II. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Preface    5 

Programme  of  the  Celebration        .        .        .        .11 

Commemorative  Sermon 13 

The  Rev.  William  Rogers  Richards,  D.D. 

Introductory  Address — Religious  Conditions  in  New 

England  in  the  time  of  Edwards    ...       29 

Professor  John  Winthrop  Platner,  D.D. 
Address — The  Philosophy  of  Edwards     ....      47 

Professor  Frederick  J.  E.  Woodbridge,  LL.D. 
Address — The  Theology  of  Edwards       •         •        •         •       73 

Professor  Egbert  Coffin  Smyth,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
Poem — A  Witness  to  the  Truth  .        .        .        ,        .      95 

President  Samuel  Valentine  Cole,  D.D. 
Address — The  Influence  of  Edwards       ....     105 

Professor  James  Orr,  D.D. 

Appendices 127 


PROGRAMME 


SUNDAY,    OCT.    4 

10.30   A.  M. 


PUBLIC  WORSHIP  in  the  Seminary  Church. 

Sermon  by  the  Rev.  William  Rogers  Richards,  D.D. 

New  York 


IMONDAY,    OCT.    5 


AFTERNOON  SESSION 

3.30  o'clock 

Professor  Charles   Orrin  Day,  D.D.,  presiding. 


DEVOTIONAL  EXERCISES. 

HYMN,  No.  38.     "  All  people  that  on  earth  do  dwell." 

WORDS  OF  WELCOME.  .        .         Professor  Day 

ADDRESS  :    Religious    Conditions    in    New  England  in  the 
Time  of  Edwards. 

Professor  John  Winthrop  Platner,  D.D. 

ADDRESS:    The  Philosophy  of  Edwards. 

Professor  Frederick  J.  E.  Woodbridge,  LL.D. 

Columbia  University 

HYMN,  No.  190.     "  Holy  Spirit,  Lord  of  Light."    (5  stanzas) 

II 


RECEPTION  AND  COLLATION 

BARTLET   CHAPEL,    5.30   O'CLOCK 

(For  invited  guests) 


Exhibition  of  autograph  and  published  writings  of  President 
Edwards  and  other  objects  of  historical  interest,  loaned  for  the 
occasion. 


EVENING  SESSION 

7.00  o'clock 

Professor  Edward  Young  Hincks,  D.D.,  presiding. 


HYMN,  No.  299.     "  Come,  we  who  love  the  Lord." 

PRAYER. 

ADDRESS  :    The  Theology  of  Edwards. 

Professor  Egbert  Coffin  Smyth,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

HYMN,  No.  14.     "  Before  Jehovah's  awful  throne." 

POEM.    -     President  Samuel  Valentine  Cole,  D.D. 

Wheaton  Seminary 

CONGRATULATORY  MESSAGE,  from  the  Senate  of  the 
United  Free  Church  College,  Glasgow. 

ADDRESS  :    The  Influence  of  Edwards. 

Professor  James  Orr,  D.D.,  Glasgow. 

HYMN,  No.  663.     "  Let  children  hear  the  mighty  deeds." 
BENEDICTION. 


SERMON 


The  Rev.  WILLIAM  ROGERS  RICHARDS,  D.D. 


PASTOR  OF 


The  Brick  Presbyterian  Church 


NEW  YORK  CITY 


SERMON 


JEREMIAH  33:  17  —  "  For  thus  saith  the  Lord, 
David  shall  never  want  a  man  to  sit  upon  the  throne 
of  the  house  of  Israel." 


The  words  are  a  prophecy  of  Christ  and  his 
eternal  Kingdom,  but  the  people  who  were  first 
comforted  by  them  had  no  clear  expectation  of 
that  coming  Kingdom.  When  they  were  told  that 
David  should  never  want  a  man,  what  they  could 
first  understand,  —  and  no  doubt  did  understand, — 
was  this,  that  the  breed  of  men  of  the  old  David- 
type  was  never  to  run  out  in  Israel  ;  that  in  every 
time  of  emergency  and  peril,  when  hearts  were  fail- 
ing and  knees  trembling,  —  as  in  the  old  Philistine 
wars,  when  some  Goliath  was  striding  up  and  down 
between  the  camps  insolently  challenging  any  cham- 
pion to  appear  for  Israel, —  in  such  dark  days  the 
right  champion  would  appear  ;  so  the  prophet  says, 
the  good  cause  would  never  be  left  to  fall  to  the 
ground  for  lack  of  him.  The  Lord  pledges  his  word 
to  this.  The  thing  is  as  sure  as  that  covenant  of  the 
day  and  night  which  cannot  fail  while  the  world 
stands.  And  really  that  was  the  best  promise  that 
could  be  made  to  a  people.  For  the  gift  of  such  a 
man  as  David  was  worth  more  to  a  nation  than 
any  other  kind  of  gift  that  the  Providence  of  God 
has  ever  bestowed.  All  the  gold  of  India,  and  all 
the  things  that  gold  could  buy,  would  not  compare 
in  value  with  this  gift  of  a  man. 

IS 


RICHARDS 

What  a  poor  little  kingdom  Israel  was,  judged  by 
our  common  standards  of  wealth  and  power.  There 
were  richer  nations  on  every  side,  better  armed 
nations,  more  populous  nations.  But  Israel  had  the 
man  ;  no  other  of  these  nations,  not  all  of  them 
together,  could  show  in  those  days  a  man  like 
David,  a  man  fit  to  sit  on  David's  throne,  a  man 
with  David's  love  for  God,  and  trust  in  God,  and 
earnest  longing  for  God  :  and  now  those  other 
nations,  Babylon  and  Nineveh  and  Tyre  and  Egypt, 
with  all  their  wealth  and  power,  are  mostly  buried 
and  forgotten  as  if  they  had  never  been  ;  but  David, 
this  king  of  Israel  !  why,  more  people  are  singing 
his  songs  today,  a  hundred  times  over,  than  he  ever 
ruled  when  he  was  alive.  This  influence  is  still  in- 
creasing in  the  world.  Such  a  man  as  that  was  the 
best  gift  that  God  could  make  to  a  nation.  Now 
the  promise  was  that  so  long  as  the  nation  of  Israel 
continued,  God  would  continue  to  bless  them  period- 
ically with  this  gift  of  men.  Of  course  there  were 
some  periods  of  great  degeneracy  when  such  men 
seemed  very  scarce,  but  the  supply  never  quite  ran 
out.  Even  in  the  worst  times,  when  all  things  were 
falling  into  chaos,  always  just  at  the  crisis  would 
appear  some  Elijah,  or  John  Baptist,  or  other  like 
man,  firm  enough  to  stand,  if  need  be,  alone  against 
the  world,  and  pull  the  world  his  way,  God's  way. 
The  man  was  never  wanting  in  the  old  days  in 
Israel. 

And    the    man    never    shall    be    wanting.       The 

i6 


COMMEMORATIVE    SERMON 

promise  still  stands  in  our  Bible,  only  it  has  been 
freed  from  its  old  restriction  to  the  nation  of  Israel. 
We  have  been  taught  to  take  all  these  promises 
more  generously,  but  the  promise  has  not  been 
revoked.  God  is  pledged  to  the  world  to  keep  up 
the  breed  of  men.  They  may  not  always  be  Jews 
now  ;  they  may  not  always  be  Greeks,  or  Romans, 
or  Englishmen,  or  even  Americans  ;  but  there  shall 
be  such  men  ;  the  race  is  not  to  run  out.  Whatever 
the  pessimists  may  say,  the  final  outcome  of  this 
great  world-experiment  is  not  to  be  the  hopeless 
degeneracy  of  manhood.  Today,  tomorrow,  next 
year,  —  so  long  as  the  old  world  stands,  if  ever  old 
David  should  come  back  to  it  again,  the  promise  is 
that  he  shall  find  somewhere  the  man  fit  to  sit  upon 
his  throne.  We  may  not  always  see  this  man,  for 
we  do  not  know  where  to  look  for  him.  In  times  of 
quiet  when  the  world  is  moving  on  its  way  smoothly 
and  easily,  we  may  often  doubt  his  existence  ;  but 
when  once  more  the  storm  breaks  upon  us,  such 
times  as  try  men's  souls,  there  he  stands,  your 
Savonarola,  Luther,  Cromwell,  Washington ;  all 
down  through  the  ages,  David  has  not  lacked  his 
man  yet. 

That  is  the  promise  ;  and,  friends,  how  good  a 
promise  it  is.  For  this  manhood  is  God's  most 
precious  commodity  :  of  all  the  things  he  has  made 
this  has  cost  the  most  to  make,  and  is  worth  the 
most  when  made.  We  Christians  always  get  some 
hint  of  the  infinite  costliness  of  manhood  when  we 

17 


RICHARDS 

read  in  this  book  the  price  of  our  redemption,  the 
precious  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  even  the  older 
records  of  the  rocks  could  tell  a  like  story,  for  they 
show  how  lavishly  the  Creator  has  been  using  up 
whole  races  of  his  creatures  in  making  way  for  man. 
If  you  are  speaking  of  the  expenditure  of  creative 
energy  involved,  I  suppose  a  great  mountain  range 
is  a  very  cheap  product  compared  with  one  little 
child  who  is  playing  at  the  base  of  it.  The  whole 
land  of  Canaan  had  not  cost  so  much  in  the  making 
as  that  one  man  David. 

And  as  this  gift  of  manhood  has  cost  more  than 
all  others,  so  it  is  worth  more.  Any  great  crisis 
proves  it.  Watch  those  tremendous  forces  of  the 
French  Revolution  running  out  into  horrible  disaster, 
because,  as  Carlyle  says,  no  Cromwell  had  appeared 
in  France,  no  man  able  to  control  these  forces. 
There  were  certain  dark  days  in  the  earlier  part  of 
our  own  civil  war,  when,  as  someone  has  said,  a 
man  able  to  lead  the  army  of  the  Potomac  would 
have  been  worth  to  the  national  government  in 
hard  cash  not  less  than  a  million  dollars  a  day.  For 
lack  of  such  a  leader  the  war  was  dragging  on  at 
that  awful  expenditure  of  wealth. 

Our  own  age  is  one  of  great  material  progress, 
and  there  may  be  the  more  need  to  remind  ourselves 
of  this  superlative  value  of  manhood.  Man's  life 
consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  he 
possesseth,  said  the  Master  ;  but  man  is  always  in 
danger  of  thinking  that    it    does    consist    in    those 

i8 


COMMEMORATIVE    SERMON 

things,  when  they  are  over-abundant.  If  he  had 
little,  —  poor  Peter,  for  instance,  with  his  one  little 
fishing  boat,  —  he  might  make  up  his  mind  to  throw 
that  little  away  ;  but  the  young  ruler  who  had  great 
possessions  was  in  danger  of  throwing  himself  away 
instead.  And  so,  in  the  bewildering  abundance  of 
good  things  which  the  Creator  has  now  granted  to 
have  and  enjoy,  there  is  always  danger  that  we  men 
and  women  may  lose  a  proper  self-respect.  We 
ought  to  remember  that  a  nation  might  be  enriched 
with  all  such  gifts  beyond  the  dreams  of  avarice, 
and  yet  not  be  worth  a  single  day's  visit  from  a  man 
like  David,  if  there  was  no  hope  of  his  finding  in  it 
a  man  to  sit  upon  his  throne. 

We  must  remember  this  in  connection  with  all 
the  different  departments  of  our  national  life. 

When  a  foreigner  comes  to  visit  our  country  and 
asks  what  we  have  to  show  him  worth  seeing,  many 
of  us  would  point  with  peculiar  pride  to  our  schools 
and  colleges,  and  that  is  well.  But  what  if  it  should 
appear  that  what  we  really  meant  by  a  school  was 
simply  the  fine  building  that  houses  it,  or  the  many 
books  in  its  library,  or  the  costly  apparatus  in  its 
laboratory,  or  the  great  size  of  its  endowment ;  the 
material  things  that  it  possesseth  .-•  That  would 
prove  that  we  had  not  yet  learned  what  a  school 
really  is.     Money  is  not  the  school. 

You  will  read  of  some  great  capitalist  who  has 
turned  his  pocket  inside  out  and  established  a  great 
university  in  our  newer  west ;  an  excellent  thing  for 

19 


RICHARDS 

him  to  do.  His  gift  creates  an  opportunity  for  the 
teacher,  if  only  you  can  find  the  teacher  ;  it  sets  up 
a  throne,  if  only  you  can  find  the  king.  But  that  is 
all  that  money  can  do.  All  the  wealth  in  Wall 
Street  could  not  do  for  a  college  what  Dr.  Arnold 
did  for  Rugby  ;  or  what  Longfellow  and  Lowell  and 
Holmes,  and  the  other  members  of  that  extraordinary 
literary  circle,  have  done  for  Harvard  ;  or  what 
General  Armstrong  did  for  Hampton.  The  best 
promise  possible  for  an  institution  of  learning  would 
not  be  that  it  shall  never  want  money,  but 
rather  that  it  shall  never  want  a  man.  We  have 
never  been  told  much  about  the  endowments  and 
buildings  of  the  old  Academy  in  Athens,  or  of  the 
Lyceum  ;  but  the  world  will  never  forget  the  men  — 
Plato  and  Aristotle.  We  do  not  hear  of  any  en- 
dowments in  that  little  college  which  grew  up  more 
than  eighteen  centuries  ago  by  the  shores  of  the  Sea 
of  Galilee  ;  but  the  world  will  never  forget  the  words 
that  fell  from  the  lips  of  its  head  Master,  the  Son 
of  Man. 

It  is  the  man  who  makes  the  college,  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  one  great  work  of  the  college  ought 
to  be  the  making  of  men.  And  I  thank  God  for  the 
old  schools  and  colleges  of  New  England,  which, 
whatever  their  faults,  have  cherished  faithfully  the 
traditions  of  a  worthy  manhood. 

So  it  is  also  in  other  departments  of  our  national 
life,  in  the  active  professions,  and  in  business.  It 
might  seem  at  first  sight,  that  here  the  amount  of 

20 


COMMEMORATIVE    SERMON 

capital  was  the  essential  thing,  the  quality  of  man- 
hood only  a  secondary  consideration  ;  but  it  is  not 
so.  The  life  even  of  the  business  world  consisteth 
not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  that  it  possesseth, 
but  in  the  character  of  the  men  who  are  using  the 
things.  Given  the  right  sort  of  men,  and  sooner  or 
later  there  will  be  capital  enough.  But  given  the 
capital,  you  cannot  be  so  sure  that  you  will  always 
find  the  right  sort  of  men.  The  world  has  more 
capital  now  than  it  quite  knows  what  to  do  with. 
Even  at  the  low  rate  of  four  per  cent.,  your  savings 
bank  sets  a  limit  to  the  amount  it  is  willing  to 
receive  from  you.  No  lack  of  capital  :  it  is  waiting 
all  about  us  for  some  one  to  use  it.  The  lack  is  of 
the  man  who  is  strong  enough  to  use  it  royally  ;  and 
when  once  he  appears,  the  man  fit  to  sit  on  the 
throne  of  a  great  railroad  corporation,  or  insurance 
company,  or  mining  trust,  and  command  it  and  make 
it  go,  —  you  know  how  such  a  man  is  prized,  how 
much  they  will  give  him,  —  ^10,000  a  year,  1^25,000, 
$50,000.  If  he  is  man  enough,  he  can  almost  name 
his  own  price. 

It  has  been  said  lately  that  civilization  is  one  long 
anxious  search  for  the  man  who  can  carry  a  message 
to  Garcia  :  and,  we  might  add,  for  some  other  man 
who  has  a  message  worth  sending  to  Garcia.  The 
man  is  the  great  want  in  the  business  world. 

And  in  the  social  life  of  every  community,  how  we 
depend  on  the  men  and  women  of  the  royal  type. 
It  is  they  who  make  any  society  worth    living    in, 

21 


RICHARDS 

and  whose  absence  would  make  any  society  not 
worth  living  in.     They  make  good  society. 

Money  cannot  make  society,  though  it  might 
easily  destroy  it.  When  the  people  had  little,  and 
lived  near  the  natural  realities  ;  the  backwoodsman 
with  his  ax  and  gun  and  paddle  ;  the  sailors  who  go 
down  to  the  sea  in  ships  and  see  the  works  of  the 
Lord  and  his  wonders  in  the  deep ;  the  farmer  with 
his  horses  and  cattle,  and  first-hand  knowledge  of 
the  crops  and  how  they  fare  in  all  sorts  of  weather  — 
you  know  what  good  company  such  people  are. 
Their  range  may  be  narrow,  but  within  it  they  are 
perpetually  interesting. 

But  give  these  same  people  what  we  call  the 
advantages  of  wealth  ;  let  them  shut  themselves  off 
from  the  real  world  by  a  multitude  of  man-made 
conventionalities  and  artifices  ;  unless  you  are  care- 
ful, you  will  find,  as  Tolstoi  affirms  with  so  much 
passion,  that  you  have  destroyed  all  their  living 
human  interest.  The  wealth  that  ought  to  have  lifted 
and  broadened  them,  has  really  cramped  and  stifled 
them  ;  and  all  the  usages  of  such  a  social  world  grow 
weary,  stale,  flat  and  unprofitable,  till  one  might 
be  tempted  to  repeat  the  remark  of  the  witty  French 
woman,  that  the  more  she  saw  of  men  the  more  highly 
she  thought  of  dogs.  That  is  what  society  often 
degenerates  into.  Oh,  what  need  there  is  to  remind 
ourselves  in  this  age  of  the  world  that  man's  life  con- 
sisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the  things  that  he  pos- 
sesseth  !    The  man  himself  is  always  what  is  wanted. 

22 


COMMEMORATIVE    SERMON 

Now  our  text  brings  a  promise  from  God  that  this 
perpetual  want  shall  be  perpetually  supplied.  If 
only  you  knew  where  to  look  for  him,  the  man  is 
somewhere  to  be  found.  If  not  in  a  palace  up  in 
Jerusalem,  the  Prince  will  be  in  a  manger  down  in 
Bethlehem.  God's  promise  shall  not  fail  ;  David 
shall  not  want  a  man  to  sit  upon  the  throne. 

I  have  hoped  that  this  old  scripture  text  might  be 
appropriate  to  the  theme  which  will  make  tomorrow 
a  memorable  day  here,  and  in  so  many  of  our  older 
institutions  of  learning.  In  the  New  England  of 
two  hundred  years  ago  God  had  his  people,  a  peculiar 
people  ;  and  they  found  him  still  faithful  to  his 
promise,  for  among  those  early  New  Englanders 
there  were  never  wanting  men.  From  the  very 
beginning  the  English  Puritan  movement  had  been 
distinguished  for  the  honor  it  did  to  simple  man- 
hood. To  a  Puritan,  rank  and  office  and  wealth,  and 
all  other  outward  accessories,  sank  into  insignificance 
as  compared  with  the  human  personality.  Everyone 
knows  Macaulay's  description  of  those  people,  how 
they  could  look  down  with  contempt  on  the  great 
men  of  the  earth  in  church  and  state,  "  being  them- 
selves noble  by  right  of  an  earlier  creation,  and 
priests  by  the  imposition  of  a  mightier  hand." 
These  were  the  English  Puritans.  Now  send  off 
a  ship-load  of  such  people  into  any  remote  and 
desolate  portion  of  the  earth,  and  you  may  rest 
assured  that  they  will  be  carrying  with  them,  in  the 
hull  of  their  little  ship,  all  the  constituent  elements 

23 


RICHARDS 

of  a  great  and  prosperous  commonwealth  :  for  the 
reason  that  they  themselves  are  men,  and  fit  to  sit 
on  thrones. 

Let  me  quote  the  words  spoken  last  spring  in  the 
Congregational  House  in  Boston,  concerning  the 
library  there,  with  its  treasure  of  old  New  England 
books.  "  For  those  who  look  upon  these  New  Eng- 
land fields  and  hills,"  Dr.  Gordon  said,  "  as  invested 
for  more  than  two  hundred  years  with  the  heroic 
humanity  of  their  ancestors,  who  see  the  image  of 
kingly  men  and  queenly  women  burning  in  the  sun 
that  lights  the  world  today,  who  hear  in  the  murmur 
of  the  brook  and  the  sigh  of  the  river  the  voices 
that  once  made  glad  the  holy  places  of  the  Most 
High,  and  who  carry  into  the  depth  of  nature,  and 
into  the  contemporary  world  of  man  the  sense  of 
that  pathetic,  heroic,  majestic  past,  these  dead  books 
will  live  again." 

Yes,  they  were  kingly  men  and  queenly  women, 
the  writers  of  these  books,  and  the  other  founders  of 
New  England ;  but  among  them  all,  or  their  de- 
scendants, there  has  not  yet  appeared  a  more  kingly 
character  than  that  great  New  Englander  whose 
memory  we  shall  celebrate  tomorrow. 

It  is  not  for  me  at  this  service  to  attempt  any 
analysis  of  Edwards's  contributions  to  philosophy,  or 
theology,  or  education,  or  the  revival  of  the  churches. 
Others  fitter  for  the  task  will  treat  of  these  themes 
tomorrow.  But  I  shall  command  your  assent  when 
I  affirm  that  greater  than  all  the  wise  things  that 

24 


COMMEMORATIVE    SERMON 

Jonathan  Edwards  may  ever  have  said,  and  all  the 
fine  things  that  he  may  have  done,  was  the  man 
himself.  What  made  that  day  two  hundred  years  ago 
memorable  was  that  then  another  man  was  born 
into  the  world.  That  was  evident  from  the  time 
when  he  began  to  resolve  those  strange  youthful 
resolutions  of  his.  Let  me  read  you  one  or  two  of 
them  :  — 

"  Resolved  so  to  live  at  all  times,  as  I  think  is  best 
in  my  devout  frames,  and  when  I  have  clearest 
notions  of  the  Gospel  and  of  another  world." 

Matthew  Arnold  was  not  the  first  to  discover  that 

"  Tasks  in  hours  of  insight  willed 
May  be  through  hours  of  gloom  fulfilled." 

Again  :  "  Resolved  never  to  give  over,  nor  in  the 
least  slacken  my  fight  with  my  corruptions,  however 
unsuccessful  I  may  be." 

Ah,  another  man  had  appeared  ! 

And  now  after  these  long  two  hundred  years,  our 
American  thought  and  life  cannot  escape  the  im- 
press of  that  mighty  personality.  This  celebration 
does  not  mean  that  all  of  us  could  profess  ourselves 
his  disciples  in  philosophy  and  theology.  His  teach- 
ings on  the  operations  of  human  will,  or  of  the  divine 
justice,  may  seem  to  some  of  us  quite  as  remote 
from  our  customary  thought  as  the  Ptolemaic  system, 
or  Plato's  ideas.  But  we  do  all  of  us  honor  and 
celebrate  the  man.  Whatever  Edwards  had  to  say, 
he  spoke  always  with  the  royal  accent  :  whatever  he 
had  to  do,  it  was  with  the  royal  bearing.    Watch  him 

25 


RICHARDS 

in  the  great  crisis  of  his  life,  those  days  of  bitterness 
and  trial,  when  his  people  at  Northampton  turned 
against  him,  and  drove  him  from  the  church  and 
from  the  town  ;  see  his  patience  and  magnanimity 
and  courage.     You  see  him  every  inch  a  king. 

But  had  ever  a  great  man  a  smaller  stage  for  the 
display  of  his  greatness  .■'  Through  most  of  his  life 
pastor  of  a  little  church  in  the  country  village 
of  Northampton  ;  then,  for  the  few  remaining  years, 
a  missionary  at  Stockbridge  ministering  to  a  few 
red  sheep  out  there  in  the  wilderness.  To  be  sure 
he  was  called  to  the  presidency  of  Princeton  ;  but  as 
if  to  prove  that  such  a  man  as  he  owes  nothing  to 
the  dignity  of  office,  he  died  before  he  had  fairly 
entered  upon  it.  He  had  a  son  whom  it  may  be 
proper  to  speak  of  as  President  Edwards.  The 
father  needs  no  such  official  title ;  Jonathan  Edwards 
is  his  name,  the  man  himself.  It  was  a  time  of 
crisis,  and  the  man  was  not  wanting.  God  had  kept 
his  promise  to  his  people.  And  so  through  all  the 
celebrations  of  tomorrow  we  do  well  to  cheer  our 
hearts  with  the  assurance  that  as  it  has  been,  so  it 
shall  be  ;  and  that  to  the  end  of  the  world,  in  the  time 
of  sorest  need  there  shall  never  be  wanting  a  man. 

"  Wanted  a  man.  "  It  is  the  great  want  always. 
A  friend  once  asked  me  to  preach  a  sermon  on  the 
theme,  '•  Wanted  a  Saint.  "  "  Put  it  at  your  people," 
he  said,  "as  an  advertisement,  as  if  it  stood  in  the 
want-column  in  the  newspaper,  '  Wanted  a  Saint.'  " 
It    struck   me  as  an  attractive  form  of  words ;  but 

26 


COMMEMORATIVE    SERMON 

when  I  tried  to  plan  out  the  sermon,  at  once  I  ran 
up  against  a  difficulty.  Such  advertisements  in  our 
papers,  for  coachmen,  gardeners,  cooks,  and  so  forth, 
are  designed  to  encourage  applications  from  persons 
who  deem  themselves  qualified  to  meet  the  want. 
But  if  you  say  "  Wanted  a  Saint,"  and  a  stranger 
should  then  appear  at  your  door  and  begin  to  re- 
hearse his  own  saintly  qualifications,  you  would  feel 
like  locking  the  stable  and  setting  a  guard  on  the 
hat-rack.  The  real  saints  are  not  so  fluent  about 
their  own  saintliness.  You  could  not  advertise  for  a 
saint,  with  any  hope  that  the  right  person  would 
apply. 

But  if  not  as  an  advertisement,  you  can  issue  this 
as  a  simple  statement  of  the  facts,  "  Wanted  a 
Saint ; "  wanted  a  man  of  faith  and  character. 
Nothing  else  in  this  world  is  wanted  so  much  ;  noth- 
ing else  is  worth  so  much.  The  community  wants 
him  ;  the  Lord  wants  him  :  and  the  promise  of  our 
text  is  that  this  want,  the  world's  great  want,  can 
always  be  supplied.  By  God's  grace  that  very  kind 
of  manhood  that  is  wanted  from  you  or  me  may  be 
had.  The  man  who  is  wanted  shall  not  be  wanting, 
that  is  the  promise.  We  must  let  the  Lord  fulfill 
that  promise. 

We  are  gathered  here  in  a  seat  of  learning,  some 
of  us  in  the  immediate  pursuit  of  an  education. 
But  the  crown  of  education,  the  finest  product  of 
any  school,  is  not  the  mere  knowledge  accumulated, 
it  is  the  living  personality  developed  ;  it  is  the  man, 

27 


RICHARDS 

the  king,  a  man  to  sit  upon  the  throne.  Young 
Edwards,  looking  forward  into  the  future,  wrote 
down  that  long  list  of  resolutions,  and  then  spent 
his  life  in  keeping  them  manfully.  As  we  still  look 
forward  into  the  unknown  future,  any  of  us  might 
well  take  example  from  him  and  ourselves  subscribe 
a  resolution  ;  and  we  could  not  do  better  than  borrow 
it  from  this  ancient  word  of  Sacred  Writ :  What- 
ever the  unknown  future  may  be,  and  wherever  in 
it  my  lot  may  be  ordered,  I  hereby  resolve  that, 
with  God's  help,  "  there  shall  not  be  wanting 
there  a  man  to  sit  upon  the  throne." 


28 


Introductory  Address 

RELIGIOUS   CONDITIONS    IN   NEW 

ENGLAND  IN  THE  TIME  OF 

EDWARDS 

JOHN  WINTHROP  PLATNER,  D.D. 

Professor  of  History 

Andover  Theological  Seminary 


::m 


INTRODUCTORY  ADDRESS 


It  falls  to  my  lot,  by  way  of  introduction  to  the 
subject  of  the  day,  briefly  to  set  before  you  the 
framework  in  which  Edwards  is  the  picture,  to 
sketch  the  surroundings  within  which  his  life  was 
passed,  and  in  particular  to  describe  the  state  of 
religion  in  New  England  in  his  time.  To  have 
value,  this  must  be  done  with  reference  to  the  life 
and  work  of  Edwards  himself.  Consequently  I 
shall  make  little  effort  to  examine  conditions  which 
are  unrelated  to  this  central  figure,  but  shall  rather 
fix  your  attention  upon  those  with  which  he  himself 
was  intimately  concerned,  either  by  reason  of  their 
influence  upon  him,  or,  more  important  still,  by 
reason  of  his  influence  upon  them. 

It  is  often  asserted  that  all  men,  the  great  in- 
cluded, are  the  products  of  their  age.  The  assertion 
contains  no  doubt  a  measure  of  truth.  No  man, 
however  self-suflficient,  can  wholly  shake  off  the 
influence  of  those  political,  social  or  religious  con- 
ditions, in  the  midst  of  which  he  may  chance  to  live. 
But  to  a  certain  number  in  every  age  it  is  given  to 
bear  the  grave  responsibility  and  enjoy  the  immeas- 
urable opportunity  of  leadership,  —  to  exemplify  in 
their  own  persons  not  product,  but  process,  —  to  set 
in  order  the  forces  which  shall  mould  the  course  of 
history,  —  yes,  to  incarnate  in  themselves  those 
very  forces.  Such  men  are  in  a  true  sense  creative. 
And    as  we  scrutinize  their  character,  we  discover 

31 


PLATNER 

there  a  quality,  undefinable  yet  unmistakable, 
which  we  call  detachment,  —  a  certain  independence 
of  spirit  and  action,  by  virtue  of  which  they  rise 
superior  to  circumstance,  superior  to  the  common 
limitations  of  time  and  place,  and  take  their  station 
among  the  elect  of  all  the  ages.  They  are  not 
wholly  emancipated  from  their  age,  but  they  are 
released  from  bondage  to  it.  They  are  no  longer 
among  the  ruled,  but  among  the  rulers. 

Jonathan  Edwards  illustrates,  to  a  notable  degree, 
this  peculiar  quality.  He  lived,  and  thought,  and 
preached,  and  wrote  in  the  New  England  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  but  in  spirit  he  dwelt  apart, 
where  neither  New  England  nor  the  eighteenth 
century  controlled  him,  and  from  his  isolation  strove 
to  gaze  into  the  soul  of  things.  To  discern  the  con- 
stitution of  the  mind,  to  resolve  the  apparent  anti- 
nomies of  thought  and  experience,  to  justify  the 
ways  of  God  to  man,  even  the  most  arbitrary,  — 
these  were  his  favorite  employments.  And  in  them 
all  Edwards  was  spokesman  for  the  race,  though  a 
still  half-rude  colony  might  be  the  theatre  of  his 
action,  and  the  calendar  mechanically  register  the 
dates  of  his  mortal  life.  While  he  was  grappling 
with  the  problem  of  the  freedom  of  the  will,  far 
away  across  the  sea  another  great  philosopher, 
younger  than  himself,  Immanuel  Kant,  was  begin- 
ning to  analyze  the  phenomena  of  consciousness,  in 
search  of  its  transcendental  elements.  How  might 
each  have  elicited  the  other's  best,  if  these  two  in- 

32 


INTRODUCTORY    ADDRESS 

tellectual  giants  could  have  been  brought  face  to 
face,  and  have  held  discourse  concerning  the  fun- 
damental realities  !  And  how  would  Europe  and 
America  have  stood  in  silent  admiration  at  the 
matching  of  such  wit  as  theirs  !  Kant  was  born, 
and  lived,  and  died  in  Konigsberg,  on  the  eastern 
border  of  European  civilization  ;  Edwards  dwelt  in 
an  English  colony,  on  civilization's  western  frontier. 
But  geography  has  never  yet  conquered  genius, 
and  provincial  obscurity  could  not  hide  the  spiritual 
light  which  streamed  from  these  two  great  minds. 

The  career  of  Edwards,  when  judged  by  ordinary 
standards,  would  scarcely  be  called  successful.  His 
childhood  indeed  was  full  of  brilliant  promise  ;  his 
student-life,  most  creditable ;  his  brief  term  of 
service  in  a  Yale  tutorship,  under  circumstances 
of  peculiar  difficulty,  an  honor  to  himself  and  to  his 
alma  mater.  His  Northampton  pastorate  too,  begun 
under  the  most  favorable  auspices,  was  carried  on 
with  earnestness  and  devotion,  and  accomplished 
marked  results  in  arousing  the  indifferent  to  a  new 
sense  of  the  value  of  religion  for  human  life.  But 
with  the  lapse  of  time,  Edwards  encountered  grow- 
ing opposition,  and  his  pastorate  ended  in  sorrow  for 
himself  and  dishonor  for  his  parishioners.  It  seemed 
no  doubt  very  like  a  professional  failure  when,  at 
the  age  of  forty-seven,  he  was  dismissed  from  his 
charge  and  turned  adrift  upon  the  world. 

He  was  not  well  adapted  to  meet  the  daily  struggle 
for    existence.       Mere    physical    wants    were    never 

33 


PLATNER 

those  which  he  was  most  interested  in  satisfying. 
Therefore  we  may  well  be  thankful  that,  before  too 
long  a  time  had  passed,  the  way  was  opened  to  another 
field  of  labor,  where  he  could  at  least  obtain  the 
necessaries  of  life  for  his  family  and  for  himself. 
Patiently  and  cheerfully  Edwards  entered  upon  his 
new  duties,  with  no  word  of  rebuke  for  those  who 
had  rejected  him,  or  of  complaint  against  the  lot 
which  had  brought  him  to  so  unpromising  a  field  of 
labor.  A  true  man  of  God,  he  won  the  hearts  of  the 
rude  red  men  by  his  noble  devotion,  and  brought 
into  their  lives  a  holy  influence.  Meanwhile  he 
found  intellectual  satisfaction  in  creative  labor,  that 
most  absorbing  of  occupations,  and  his  thoughts 
lingered  fondly  in  the  most  abstruse  regions  of  meta- 
physical theology,  where  was  their  rightful  home. 
But  the  settlement  of  the  greatest  philosopher  of  his 
day  as  a  missionary  among  the  Housatonic  Indians, 
is  again  an  event  which  must  have  seemed  sadly  to 
contravene  the  law  of  adaptation. 

At  last  there  came  an  opportunity  which  seemed 
better  suited  to  a  man  of  Edwards's  powers, —  the 
offer  of  the  presidency  of  Princeton  College.  After 
long  delay,  and  with  manifest  reluctance,  he  accepted 
and  entered  upon  the  duties  of  the  office,  but  only  to 
lay  them  down  almost  immediately  at  the  stern  bid- 
ding of  death.  This  too,  in  the  eyes  of  the  world, 
would  be  counted  a  failure.  Yet,  standing  at  our 
vantage  point  of  time,  how  different  appears  the 
verdict    of    history    upon    the    whole    of    Edwards's 

34 


INTRODUCTORY    ADDRESS 

career.  Instead  of  failure  we  behold  achjjeyement 
of  the  highest  order,  we  see  forces  set  in  operation 
which  affected  life  at  many  points,  stimulating 
thought,  quickening  conscience,  reforming  society, 
and  creating — it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  —  a 
new  epoch  for  American  Christianity. 

Great  political  and  religious  changes  had  passed 
over  the  face  of  New  England  before  Edwards  came 
upon  the  scene.  The  original  colonists  had  long 
been  dead,  and  with  them  had  vanished  the  early 
enthusiasm  of  their  enterprise.  Two  generations 
had  grown  up  under  the  hard  conditions  of  frontier 
life,  struggling  with  the  reluctant  northern  soil,  and 
constantly  exposed  to  possible  outbreaks  of  Indian 
ferocity.  This  contact  with  nature  on  her  cruel 
side  had  rendered  manners  rude,  and  deadened 
spiritual  sensibilities.  Such  education  as  Harvard 
was  able  to  provide,  although  highly  creditable  to 
the  colony,  had  not  quite  the  same  value  as  the 
university  training  the  first  settlers  had  enjoyed  in 
their  early  English  homes,  and  Yale  College  had 
but  just  opened  its  doors.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
eighteenth  century  there  were  about  one  hundred 
and  twenty  churches  of  the  Congregational  order 
in  New  England,  two-thirds  of  which  were  in 
Massachusetts.  These  embraced  within  their  mem- 
bership the  large  majority  of  professedly  Christian 
people,  yet  the  population  was  no  longer  religiously 
homogeneous.  Not  even  the  short  and  easy  method 
of   exclusion,    formerly    in    vogue,    had    availed    to 

35 


PLATNER 

preserve  ecclesiastical  purity.  If  non-conformists 
',to  "the  New  England  way"  had  not  succeeded  in 
becoming  permanent  residents  of  the  colonies,  they 
at  least  had  managed  occasionally  to  stay  long 
enough  to  start  their  propaganda,  and  always  long 
enough  to  arouse  dissension. 

Baptists  had  vexed  the  souls  of  the  dominant 
party  ever  since  John  Clarke  began  to  minister  in 
Newport,  and  since  Roger  Williams  and  his  twelve 
companions  were  "plunged"  in  Providence.  The  de- 
fection of  President  Dunster  had  alarmed  all  those 
interested  in  Harvard  College,  and  moved  the  Cam- 
bridge minister  to  preach  "  more  than  half  a  score  of 
ungainsayable  sermons"  in  defence  of  "the  comfort- 
able truth  "  of  infant  baptism.  As  the  seventeenth 
century  progressed,  the  leaders  of  the  theocracy 
took  vigorous  measures  to  suppress  the  objectionable 
sect.  "Experience  tells  us,"  says  Samuel  Willard, 
"  that  such  a  rough  thing  as  a  New  England  Ana- 
baptist is  not  to  be  handled  over-tenderly."  Yet 
the  Baptists  increased  and,  in  Edwards's  time, 
they  formed  an  important  element  of  the  population. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  the  Religious  Society  of 
Friends  should  ever  have  been  a  disturbing  element 
in  any  Christian  community,  yet  so  it  was.  When 
the  "  truth,"  as  taught  by  George  Fox  and  his  fol- 
lowers, "  brake  forth  in  America,"  like  many  another 
truth  in  the  course  of  history,  it  was  unrecognized, 
spurned,  and  tried  in  the  fires  of  persecution,  that 
its  alloy  of  error  might  be  removed.     The  time  had 

36 


INTRODUCTORY   ADDRESS 

not  yet  come  when  the  colonists  would  recognize 
the  truth,  — which  seems  now  as  elementary  as  it  is 
Biblical,  —  that  "the  manifestation  of  the  spirit  is 
given  to  every  man  to  profit  withal."  That  time, 
however,  would  come,  and  all  the  sooner  for  the 
mysticism  of  Edwards,  which  after  all  is  not  re- 
motely akin  to  that  of  Fox. 

By  far  the  most  disliked  and  distrusted  of  all 
religious  bodies  in  New  England,  next  to  the 
"  Scarlet  Woman  "  herself,  was  the  Episcopal  church. 
In  the  year  of  Edwards's  birth,  Keith  and  Talbot 
were  touring  the  colonies  in  the  interest  of  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel.  Just 
after  Edwards's  graduation,  Yale  College,  which 
was  relied  upon  to  preserve  genuine  Puritan  tradi- 
tions, along  with  its  cultivation  of  sound  learning, 
threatened  to  apostatize,  losing  Rector  Cutler  and  a 
tutor  to  the  Episcopal  communion.  Not  a  little  of 
the  labor  and  responsibility  required  to  maintain 
order  and  restore  confidence  in  the  college  at  this 
crisis,  rested  upon  the  shoulders  of  Edwards,  and 
worthily  did  he  repay  the  confidence  reposed  in  him. 
He  took  no  active  part,  it  is  true,  in  open  war- 
fare against  the  Anglicans,  but  the  principles  of  his 
teaching  were  such  as  to  give  stability  and  strength 
to  the  churches  of  his  own  order.  One  finds,  how- 
ever, that  anxiety  over  the  gains  made  by  Anglican- 
ism throughout  New  England,  and  over  proposals 
to  procure  an  American  episcopate,  continued  far 
beyond    the  limits  of  Edwards's  life-time.     Among 

37 


PLATNER 

the  "trials  and  difificulties,"  of  which  the  Diary  of 
Ezra  Stiles  gives  a  formidable  list,  we  find  "  concern 
for  the  Congregational  churches,  and  the  prevalence 
of  episcopacy  and  wickedness." 

The  new  charter  of  the  Bay  colony,  issued  the 
year  Timothy  Edwards  was  graduated  from  Har- 
vard, greatly  altered  the  political  situation  by 
widening  the  suffrage  and  substituting  what  must 
have  seemed  like  a  secularized  commonwealth  in 
place  of  the  old  theocracy.  Joshua  Scottow's 
pathetic  book,  entitled  "  Old  Men's  Tears,"  bears 
witness  to  the  feeling  of  despondency  felt  by  con- 
servative men,  as  they  beheld  the  passing  of  the  old 
order.  The  year  before  Edwards  was  born,  in  the 
procession  in  Boston  held  in  honor  of  the  proclama- 
tion of  Queen  Anne,  the  ministers  no  longer  took 
precedence  of  the  civil  magistrates. 

The  change  which  was  perhaps  most  keenly  felt 
was  the  abolition  of  the  special  privileges  long 
enjoyed  by  adherents  of  the  '•  standing  order." 
What  the  national  church  was  to  England,  that 
Congregationalism  has  been  to  the  colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay.  The  principle  of  toleration  was  new. 
It  had  but  lately  and  reluctantly  been  recognized  in 
the  mother  country,  and  it  had  many  foes  both 
there  and  in  America.  Increase  Mather  said  of  it, 
"  I  do  believe  that  antichrist  hath  not  in  this  day  a 
more  probable  way  to  advance  the  kingdom  of 
darkness."  This  principle,  which  permitted  the 
existence,    and    thereby    encouraged  the  growth  of 

38 


INTRODUCTORY    ADDRESS 

several  ecclesiastical  bodies,  was  destined  greatly  to 
alter  the  religious  complexion  of  New  England. 
Edwards  lived  at  the  time  when  denominational 
history  was  just  beginning.  Now  throughout  the 
protestant  world  denominationalism  has  been  largely 
determined  by  doctrinal  divergences.  This  was  the 
case  in  the  eighteenth  century,  both  in  England  and 
in  America,  and  to  Edwards  more  than  to  anyone 
else, — far  more  than  to  his  great  contemporary, 
John  Wesley,  —  belongs  the  responsibility  of  having 
sharply  defined  the  theological  differences  of  that 
formative  period. 

Christian  life  at  the  opening  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  probably  less  decadent  in  the  American 
colonies  than  in  England,  where  the  corrupt  social 
heritage  of  the  Restoration,  the  popularity  of  a 
superficial  "  natural  religion,"  and  the  irreligious 
influence  of  the  French  school  were  largely  respon- 
sible for  the  condition  of  affairs.  Orthodox  belief 
and  moral  conduct  had  seemed  there  to  degenerate 
together.  A  coarse  cynicism  characterized  the 
speech  and  action  of  many  of  the  gentry,  and  it  was 
jestingly  proposed  that  Parliament  should  pass  an  act 
omitting  the  word  "  not  "  from  the  Decalogue  and 
inserting  it  in  the  Creed.  But  if  moral  deterioration 
in  New  England  was  less  marked,  it  was  never- 
theless grave  enough,  and  the  very  severe  codes  of 
law  then  in  force  seemed  unable  to  check  its 
progress.  Religious  indifference  was  correspond- 
ingly wide-spread. 

39 


PLATNER 

Then,  at  the  time  of  greatest  need,  the  cause  of 
vital  religion  in  old  England,  thanks  to  the  Wes- 
leyan  movement,  received  a  fresh  influx  of  splendid 
energy,  which  permeated  all  classes  of  society,  and 
turned  back  the  tide  of  irreligion  and  moral  laxity. 
In  New  England,  at  the  same  time,  the  "  Great 
Awakening,"  as  it  must  ever  be  called,  infused  new 
life  into  every  church  and  community  within  her 
borders.  And  it  was  Jonathan  Edwards  more  than 
anyone  else,  —  with  the  sincerity,  earnestness  and 
directness  of  his  preaching,  —  who  started  this  vast 
movement.  The  Awakening  was  far  from  being 
merely  a  series  of  sensational  revivals.  In  spite  of 
its  fanatical  excesses  (with  which  Edwards  had  no 
sympathy),  it  was  accompanied  by  a  veritable  moral 
reformation.  Edwards  directed  all  his  preaching, 
even  the  most  terrible,  towards  the  great  end  of 
transforming  character  in  accordance  with  the  will 
of  God.  How  he  harmonized  his  theological  deter- 
minism with  his  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  his 
realistic  portraitures  of  future  woe  with  his  doctrine 
of  the  divine  love,  we  need  not  here  inquire.  The 
problems  are  at  least  as  old  as  St.  Paul.  And  just 
such  antinomies  as  these,  although  incapable  of 
solution  by  the  laws  of  logic,  are  proved  historically 
to  be  no  bar  to  useful  and  effective  service  in  the 
kingdom  of  Christ. 

Edwards  found  New  England  morally  decadent ; 
he  left  it  under  the  power  of  an  awakened  moral 
sense.       But    this    result  was    wrought    by    distinc- 

40 


INTRODUCTORY    ADDRESS 

tively  religious  means,  Edwards  made  no  effort  to 
be  a  moral  reformer  without  morality's  highest 
sanction,  and  against  the  Arminian  conception  of 
virtue  he  registered  an  unqualified  protest.  No 
human  effort,  no  ethical  teaching,  however  lofty, 
could  avail  to  change  the  heart  or  transform  char- 
acter. Only  divine  power  could  do  this,  working 
from  within  outward,  making  the  tree  good  from  its 
roots,  cleansing  the  heart,  out  of  which  are  the 
issues  of  life.  And  the  moral  tonic  thus  adminis- 
tered accomplished  its  cure.  "  Conversion "  did 
result  in  moral  reformation.  By  means  of  his 
accurate  insight  into  the  nature  of  true  virtue, 
Edwards  established  anew  the  rightful  relationship 
between  cause  and  effect  in  character-building.  But 
if  he  denied  the  efficacy  of  unaided  human  effort  to 
save  the  soul,  he  also  denied  the  efficacy  of  a  mere 
correct  religious  theory.  "  No  merely  speculative 
understanding  of  the  doctrines  of  religion  "  would 
suffice.  Only  the  power  of  God,  with  its  response 
in  the  life  of  obedient  faith,  could  perform  the 
miracle. 

Edwards  found  ecclesiastical  discipline  relaxed 
under  the  system  of  the  half-way  covenant ;  he  over- 
threw that  system,  tightened  the  cords  which  bound 
believers  into  one  body,  and  redeemed  the  churches 
from  secularization.  The  half-way  covenant  had 
long  been  in  use  in  Northampton  and  in  other 
sections  of  New  England,  where  it  had  come  to 
enjoy  all  the  prestige  of  established  custom.     It  is  a 

41 


PLATNER 

shallow  optimism  which  would  regard  this  phenom- 
enon as  insignificant.  A  vital  issue  was  at  stake, 
namely  this  :  is  religion  form,  or  is  it  substance  ? 
If  candidates  were  admitted  to  the  church  without 
manifesting  any  fitness  to  assume  its  responsibilities, 
the  church  would  at  once  take  on  the  character  of  a 
corpus  permixtum,  a  character  which,  however  true 
or  false  in  itself,  was  clearly  in  violation  of  the 
historic  principles  of  Puritanism.  Edwards  com- 
batted  this  conception,  and  it  cost  him  his  pastorate; 
but  the  qualifications  for  full  communion  were  once 
more  stated,  in  their  earlier  sense,  and  sooner  or 
later  the  churches  came  over  to  his  view.   , 

Edwards  found  New  England  un-theological  ;  he 
left  it  equipped  with  all  the  apparatus  for  an 
energetic  theological  life.  When  he  began  his  min- 
istry the  churches  lacked  a  just  appreciation  of 
the  value  of  Christian  theology,  and  of  the  beneficial 
service  it  should  be  made  to  render.  To  be  sure, 
the  early  colonists  had  brought  with  them  the 
system  of  doctrine  generally  accepted  by  English 
Puritans,  and  the  Westminster  standards  had  always 
been  those  of  American  Congregationalism.  But 
orthodoxy,  in  Edwards's  day,  had  become  stereo- 
typed and  conventional.  The  familiar  history  of  all 
scholasticism  was  here  being  repeated,  the  end  of 
which  is  death.  No  great  leaders  had  arisen  to 
state  anew  the  problems  of  theology,  much  less  to 
attempt  their  solution.  But  upon  these  problems 
Edwards  pondered  long  and  deeply.     He  noted,  in 

42 


INTRODUCTORY    ADDRESS 

his  own  experience,  divergences  from  those  conven- 
tional rules  which  he  had  been  taught  were  universal. 
And  when  he  discovered  that  he  had  not  "  ex- 
perienced regeneration  exactly  in  those  steps  in 
which  divines  say  it  is  generally  wrought,"  he 
resolved  "  never  to  leave  searching "  until  he  had 
discovered  "  why  they  used  to  be  converted  in  those 
steps." 

Now  this  is  the  first  step  in  theological  progress, 
boldly  to  confront  and  to  interrogate  the  past. 
Always  respectful  toward  his  predecessors,  Edwards 
was  not  the  blind  follower  of  any,  and  his  independ- 
ence, and  effort  to  be  thorough,  while  they  led  him 
into  no  heresies,  as  they  have  led  some  others,  did 
lead  him  so  to  restate  the  doctrines  commonly 
called  Calvinistic,  as  to  open  a  new  chapter  of 
American  religious  thought. 

Theological  parties  are  rightly  described  as  dating 
from  this  time,  and  it  was  Edwards's  sharp  definition 
of  the  issues  which  called  them  into  being.  He 
himself  stands  at  the  head  of  that  highly  interesting 
succession  of  divines, — Hopkins,  Bellamy,  Emmons, 
Dwight  and  the  rest,  down  to  our  own  Professor  Park, 
—  who  are  known  as  the  "New  England  School." 
Recoiling  from  the  severity  of  his  clear-cut  Calvin- 
ism, the  Arminian  party  diverged  from  the  Edward- 
ean,  and  sub-divided  within  itself.  The  more  evan- 
gelical wing,  under  the  leadership  of  Wesley  and  his 
followers,  moved  on  into  Methodism,  now  numerically 
the    strongest    protestant  communion  in  the  world. 

43 


PLATNER 

The  less  evangelical,  under  the  leadership  of  Chauncy, 
Mayhew,  and  later  James  Freeman,  developed  into 
the  liberal  societies  called  Unitarian,  now  numerically 
among  the  weakest.  Of  other  varieties  of  theological 
opinion,  many  of  which  find  their  beginning  in  this 
formative  period,  there  is  no  time  to  speak. 

But  when  we  ask  ourselves  what  service  Edwards 
rendered  which  appeals  most  strongly  to  the  religious 
sympathies  of  today,  I  think  we  shall  not  find  it  in 
his  system  of  theology.  We  must  rather  seek  it  in 
his  spiritual  insight  and  his  mysticism.  He  had 
beheld  not  simply  the  infernal  terrors  but  also  the 
beatific  vision,  and  this  was  for  him  evermore  the 
profoundest  of  realities.  Direct  intuition  of  God's 
will  and  personal  communion  with  the  Holy  Spirit 
were  the  forces  which  controlled  him.  His  purely 
religious  influence,  stamped  clear  and  strong  upon 
his  own  age,  is  one  of  the  church's  most  precious 
possessions.  Systems  of  thought  may  arise,  and 
flourish,  and  decay  ;  though  they  bear  within  them 
the  potency  of  life,  yet  it  is  in  ever  changing  forms, 
and  the  fact  of  their  continuity  may  easily  escape  all 
but  professional  students  of  the  past.  In  the  great 
circuit  of  the  world's  intelligence,  they  have  no 
continuing  city.  But  the  search  of  a  soul  after 
God  stands  possessed  of  an  imperishable  interest. 
Whether  it  be  an  Origen  or  an  Augustine,  a  St. 
Francis  or  a  Luther,  a  Wesley  or  an  Edwards, 
ancient  and  modern  times  unite  in  paying  homage  to 
their  memory.     And  upon  the  face  of  the  fair  monu- 

44 


INTRODUCTORY    ADDRESS 

ments  which  posterity  shall  rear,  this  inscription 
should  ever  stand  :  Here  once  more,  in  the  person  of 
this  man  of  God,  was  exemplified  the  union  of  the 
human  and  the  divine.  As  the  flower  turns  upward, 
to  drink  in  the  sun's  life-giving  beams,  so  this  soul 
opened  towards  heaven,  and  received  the  very  life  of 
God. 


45 


Address 
THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDWARDS 

FREDERICK  J.  E.  WOODBRIDGE,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  Philosophy 

Columbia  University 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  EDWARDS 


In  the  preface  to  his  book  on  Jonathan  Edwards, 
Professor  Allen  quotes  with  approval  the  remark  of 
Bancroft,  "  He  that  would  know  the  workings  of  the 
New  England  mind  in  the  middle  of  the  last  century, 
and  the  throbbings  of  its  heart,  must  give  his  days 
and  nights  to  the  study  of  Jonathan  Edwards. " 
And  Professor  Allen  adds,  "  He  that  would  under- 
stand the  significance  of  later  New  England  thought, 
must  make  Edwards  the  first  object  of  his  study.  " 
Time  has  at  last  set  the  limit  to  the  truth  of  such 
remarks.  To  understand  the  philosophy  and  theol- 
ogy of  today  in  New  England  or  the  country  at 
large,  the  student  must  undoubtedly  seek  his  founda- 
tions elsewhere  than  in  the  thought  of  Edwards. 
His  influence  is  now  largely  negligible.  The  type  of 
thinking  which  most  widely  prevails,  is  so  far  re- 
moved from  him,  in  such  notable  contrast  to  him, 
finds  its  roots  so  markedly  in  other  sources,  that  in- 
terest in  him  is  more  antiquarian  than  vitalizing. 
But  the  remarkable  thing  is  that  these  statements, 
true  today,  were  not  true  in  1889,  when  Professor 
Allen's  book  appeared.  To  question  then  the  sound- 
ness of  his  estimate,  or  that  of  Bancroft's,  could  at 
best  involve  only  the  censure  of  a  mild  exaggeration. 
A  few  days  and  nights,  even  at  that  time,  might 
have  been  spared  the  student  of  New  England 
thought  from  surrender  to  Edwards. 

That  less  than  twenty  years  could  have  involved 

49 


WOODBRIDGE 

such  a  change,  is  itself  a  significant  commentary  on 
the  power  of  Edwards's  work.  It  has  failed  not 
through  refutation,  but  through  inadequacy.  Today 
we  get  so  much  more  elsewhere,  and  find  other 
richer  sources  to  stir  us  to  progress  or  controversy. 
It  is  to  Greek  philosophy,  and  to  British  and  German 
philosophy  and  theology,  that  the  student  must  give 
his  days  and  nights,  if  he  is  to  understand  our 
thought.  And  so  for  us,  I  take  it,  New  England 
thought,  impressed  in  its  beginnings  so  potently  by 
Edwards  that  he  dominated  it  either  positively  or 
negatively  for  a  century  and  a  half,  has  failed  to  af- 
ford a  foundation  for  progressive  development  in 
either  philosophy  or  theology.  It  is  to  be  noted 
further  that  the  foundations  we  now  rest  upon,  have 
not  been  laid  by  our  contemporaries.  They  reach 
far  back  into  the  past,  to  Edwards's  contemporaries 
abroad,  to  his  predecessors  by  many  centuries.  Sig- 
nificant as  the  thought  of  New  England  has  been  on 
its  speculative  side,  it  has  not  contained  enough 
native,  original  strength  to  preserve  it  from  the  in- 
adequacy which  profoundly  marked  it  through  its 
ignorance  of  history.  The  courses  in  philosophy 
and  theology  offered  in  our  colleges,  universities, 
and  seminaries  today,  are  so  immeasurably  superior 
to  those  offered  twenty  years  ago,  that  one  can  read- 
ily understand  why  the  types  of  philosophy  and 
theology  are  so  vastly  different  and  owe  such  differ- 
ent allegiance.  But  one  would  be  a  poor  observer, 
if  he  did   not  recognize  the   peculiar  vigor  of  that 

50 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

New  England  thought,  which  may  have  ceased  to  in- 
fluence him  profoundly. 

So  I  would  not  have  these  remarks  construed  into 
a  belittling  of  Edwards  or  his  influence.  I  have 
made  them  because,  in  connection  with  that  in- 
fluence, they  indicate  the  fact  from  which  it  must  be 
estimated.  More  than  this  :  this  fact,  viewed  in  the 
light  of  what  Edwards  himself  did  and  of  what  his 
early  years  gave  promise,  has  given  me  the  most 
suggestive  insight  into  the  man's  power  and  versatil- 
ity, and  a  more  satisfactory  estimate  of  his  person- 
ality as  a  thinker.  For  he  was  a  man  with  an 
undeveloped  possibility,  greater  to  my  mind  than 
the  actuality  attained.  He  did  not  belong  to  the 
men  we  cannot  imagine  different,  but  to  the  men, 
whom,  the  better  we  know  them,  the  more  we  seem 
compelled  to  view  in  other  light.  What  he  might 
have  been,  becomes,  at  least  for  the  student  of  phil- 
osophy, as  insistent  and  suggestive  a  question  as 
what  he  was. 

One  cannot  write  history  as  it  ought  to  have  been. 
Yet  this  truth  ought  not  to  blind  us  to  the  fact  that 
there  have  been  great  persons,  whose  position  in 
history  has  been  not  only  influential,  but,  more  sig- 
nificantly, critical.  To  such  persons  is  chargeable 
not  only  what  their  influence  has  been,  but  also 
what  it  has  not  been.  If  the  thought  of  New  Eng- 
land has  been  largely  determined  by  Edwards  in  its 
positive  achievements,  it  has  been  almost  equally 
determined  by  him  in  what  it  has  failed  to  achieve,  for 

SI 


WOODBRIDGE 

he  undoubtedly  possessed,  although  he  did  not  carry 
through  in  his  work,  those  elements  which  in  large 
measure  would  have  made  that  thought  more  stable 
and  lasting.  It  has  failed  through  lack  of  real  phil- 
osophical insight.  But  it  was  just  this  insight  which 
Edwards  possessed  in  a  very  remarkable  degree,  but 
failed  to  carry  through  in  his  work.  And  this  is  the 
more  significant  because  no  other  American,  per- 
haps, has  possessed  philosophical  insight  of  equal 
power. 

It  would  of  course  be  futile  to  attempt  to  say  what 
American  thought  would  have  been  if  Edwards  had 
not  lacked  philosophical  thoroughness.  Yet  it  ap- 
pears to  me  undoubtedly  true  that  it  no  longer  finds 
him  influential  because  of  just  this  lack,  and  that  it 
presents  today  little  continuity  with  its  past.  It 
has  appeared  to  me  instructive,  therefore,  to  consider 
with  some  detail,  this  lack  of  philosophical  thorough- 
ness in  Edwards's  work,  in  order  to  an  appreciation 
of  his  critical  significance  in  the  history  of  American 
thinking,  and  of  the  profoundly  interesting  character 
of  his  own  thought. 

Edwards's  "  Notes  on  the  Mind,"  of  uncertain 
though  doubtless  early  date,  incomplete,  detached, 
and  of  most  varying  worth,  are  doubtless  for  the 
student  of  philosophy  the  most  impressive  products 
of  Edwards's  thought.  While  they  reveal  his  philos- 
ophical ability  as  perhaps  none  of  his  publications 
reveals  it,  they  cannot  be  credited  with  contributing 
to  his  influence.     They  were  not  a  known  factor. 

52 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

They  are  not  inconsistent  with  his  elaborate  treat- 
ises, as  Professor  Gardiner  maintains  that  they  are 
not,  but  one  would  not  be  led  to  suspect  them  from 
these  treatises.  I  dismiss  consideration  of  them  for 
the  present,  therefore,  to  return  to  them  after  speak- 
ing of  some  of  his  completed  works.  Foremost  of 
these  is  undoubtedly  his  "  Enquiry  into  Freedom  of 
Will." 

The  reader  of  this  Enquiry  today  must  add  his 
tribute  to  the  many  bestowed  by  others  on  its  great- 
ness. But  just  because  it  is  so  great,  its  lack  of 
philosophical  thoroughness  is  remarkable.  What 
amazes  one  about  it  is  that  an  analysis  of  the  will  so 
acute,  so  sane,  so  dispassionate,  so  free  from  preju- 
dice or  tricky  argument,  and  so  sound,  if  the  dis- 
tinction of  terms  made  by  Edwards  is  admitted, 
could  yet,  with  hardly  a  trace  of  rational  justification, 
be  linked  with  a  Calvinistic  conception  of  God  and 
the  world.  I  do  not  mean  that  it  is  at  all  amazing 
that  Edwards's  conception  of  the  will  should  be  held 
by  Calvinists,  or  be  thought  consistent  with  their 
positions,  but  rather  that  a  mind  that  could  so  pro- 
foundly philosophize  about  the  will,  could  be  so 
insensible  of  the  -need  of  further  philosophy  to  link 
his  results  with  his  theological  convictions.  More 
than  this  :  that  a  mind  so  fair  and  dispassionate  in 
his  analysis  of  the  will,  could  be  so  unfair  and  pas- 
sionate in  his  theological  setting  of  it. 

The  first  two  parts  of  the  Enquiry,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Sections  ii  and  12  of  Part  II,  which  are 

53 


WOODBRIDGE 

exegetical,  are  to  be  classed  among  the  greatest  of 
philosophical  writings.  That  Edwards  is  not  unique 
in  what  he  here  discloses  does  not  detract  from  his 
greatness.  Spinoza,  Hobbes  and  Hume  all  have 
the  same  doctrine,  but  exhibit  no  greater  philosophi- 
cal skill  in  the  exposition  of  it.  Significant  too  for 
his  remarkable  power  is  the  fact  that  these  men  had, 
at  first  hand,  acquaintance  with  other  philosophies, 
which  he  altogether  lacked.  In  these  parts,  and  in- 
deed in  the  whole  work,  wherever  Edwards  seeks  to 
fix  or  distinguish  terms,  he  is  remarkably  acute.  A 
notable  illustration  of  this  among  many  equally  nota- 
ble, is  his  analysis  of  the  term  "action  "  in  Part  IV^ 
Section  2.  His  clear  insistence  on  the  need  of  such 
analysis,  and  his  skill  in  executing  it,  rank  him 
among  the  great  logicians.  Simple  distinctions  in 
argument,  but  of  weighty  import,  abound,  such  as 
this :  "  Infallible  foreknowledge  may  prove  the 
necessity  of  the  event  foreknown,  and  yet  not  be 
the  thing  which  causes  the  necessity."  Everywhere 
the  impression  is  left  that  such  simple  distinctions 
are  the  fruit  of  careful  thought  and  the  utterances  of 
a  mind  sure  of  its  grasp.  So  long  as  Edwards  gives 
himself  up  to  the  analysis,  this  sureness  is  evident, 
so  evident  indeed,  that  he  lets  the  argument  carry 
itself  by  its  own  worth  without  any  attempt  at 
persuasion. 

The  results  of  the  analysis  are  notable.  Necessity 
may  be  one  in  philosophical  definition,  but  it  is  as 
diverse  in  existence  as  the  realms  where  it  is  found. 

54 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    Of    EDWARDS 

Natural  and  moral  necessity  are  both  necessity,  but 
different  kinds  of  it.  Causal  relations  may  exist  be- 
tween mental  events  as  well  as  between  physical 
events,  without  making  mental  events  physical. 
What  makes  moral  necessity  repugnant  is  its  con- 
fusion with  natural  necessity,  which  is  as  if  one  were 
to  confuse  mind  with  matter.  We  should  recognize 
too  that  necessity  is  not  some  exterior  fate,  compel- 
ling events,  but  the  actual  linkage  which  the  events 
disclose  in  their  existence,  and  that  they  do  disclose 
such  linkage  wherever  they  exist,  in  the  mind  as 
well  as  in  nature.  Did  it  not  exist  in  the  mind, 
there  would  then  be  no  linkage  between  motive  and 
act,  between  end  and  means.  Again,  whether  an  act 
is  voluntary,  and  so  free,  depends  on  whether  it  is 
the  result  of  volition  or  of  something  else.  The 
causes  of  volition,  whatever  they  may  be,  do  not 
affect  its  voluntary  aspect  or  destroy  the  function  of 
the  will,  any  more  tl^an  the  causes  of  life  destroy  the 
functions  of  life.  Again,  moral  praise  or  blame  does 
not  belong  to  the  causes  of  men's  acts  but  to  the 
acts  themselves,  just  as  natural  praise  or  blame  be- 
longs not  to  the  causes  of  a  thing  but  to  its  value. 
Yet  moral  merit  is  different  from  natural  merit,  as 
the  mind  is  different  from  nature.  So  one  might 
continue  until  he  had  exhibited  all  the  results  of  the 
analysis. 

I  am  of  course  aware  that  attempts  have  been 
made  to  overthrow  this  analysis  of  Edwards,  but  I 
confess  that  I  find  nothing  in   the    analysis    which 

55 


WOODBRIDGE 

should  lead  one  to  make  the  attempt.  Motives  to 
that  effort  are  derived  from  other  sources,  and 
almost  exclusively  from  ethical  or  theological  in- 
terests. Nothing  in  the  whole  analysis  is  hostile  to 
morality,  until  that  analysis  ceases  to  be  analysis, 
and  becomes  instead  a  revelation  of  God's  activity 
or  the  secret  workings  of  some  ultimate  being.  It 
is  not  hostile  to  morality  because  it  discloses  most 
powerfully  and  convincingly  the  fact  that  man  by 
the  necessity  of  his  own  nature  must  act  and  judge 
with  an  appreciation  of  the  value  and  responsibility 
of  his  acts,  just  as  the  sun  by  the  necessity  of 
its  own  nature  must  shine.  To  show  that  is  not  to 
drive  morality  out  of  human  life,  but  to  found  it  in 
the  constitution  of  things.  It  is  philosophy  at  its 
best. 

And  just  because  it  is  philosophy  at  its  best,  we 
look  eagerly  for  its  continuance.  But  here  Edwards 
fails  us.  He  does  not  continue.  Perhaps  he  could 
not.  And  the  fact  that  he  did  not,  or  could  not,  is 
the  critical  thing  for  his  philosophy  and  influence. 
As  we  proceed  to  the  remaining  parts  of  the 
Enquiry,  containing  his  polemic  against  the  Armin- 
ians,  we  pursue  arguments  which  have  no  philosoph- 
ical relation  to  what  has  preceded.  There  is  no 
longer  philosophical  analysis  and  construction  at  a 
sustained  height,  but  only  flashes  of  it  here  and 
there,  amid  pages  of  rhetorical  attempts  at  per- 
suasion, tricky  arguments,  and  sophistry.  There  is 
no  philosophical  carrying  through  of  the  doctrine  of 

S6 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

the  will.  Repeatedly  he  is  content  to  dispose  of  a 
difficulty  in  Calvinism  by  pointing  out  that  Armin- 
ianism  has  the  same  difficulty.  He  argues  that  if 
total  moral  inability  excuses  a  man  totally,  partial 
inability  should  excuse  him  partially,  and  in  proper 
numerical  proportion.  This  remarkable  argument 
he  illustrates  by  his  figure  of  the  balance  which  can 
turn  ten  pounds  but  no  more,  forgetting,  apparently, 
the  deep  significance  of  the  fact  that  it  can  turn 
anything  less  than  ten  pounds,  forgetting,  in  short, 
the  vast  difference  between  degrees  of  ability  and 
no  ability  at  all.  To  the  objection  that  men  are 
blameless  if  God  gives  them  up  to  sin,  he  can  only 
cry,  "  Then  Judas  was  blameless  after  Christ  had 
given  him  over."  To  these  instances  of  philosoph- 
ical weakness  many  more  could  be  added,  especially 
Part  IV,  Section  9,  where  the  question  is  discussed, 
"  How  God  is  concerned  in  the  existence  of  sin." 
It  is  exceptionally  remarkable  that  the  man  who 
wrote  the  first  two  parts  of  the  work  could  have 
written  this  section.  His  apparent  unconsciousness 
of  the  significance  of  the  fact  that  his  own  theory  of 
the  will  might,  with  equal  justice,  be  linked  with 
totally  different  ultimate  positions,  is  also  note- 
worthy. He  recognizes  the  simple  and  cogent 
truth  that  his  doctrine  is  not  false  just  because 
Hobbes  and  the  Stoics  held  it.  But  he  fails  to  see 
that  their  holding  of  it  may  point  to  other  con- 
clusions than  the  Calvinistic. 

It  is  not  that  Edwards  prostitutes  his  philosophy 

57 


WOODBRIDGE 

to  his  theological  convictions.  To  my  mind  there  is 
not  the  slightest  proof  of  that,  and,  so  far  as  I  know, 
it  has  never  been  seriously  maintained.  The  fact  is 
rather  that  the  philosopher  never  became  the  theo- 
logian or  the  theologian  the  philosopher.  It  is  futile 
to  try  to  understand  Edwards's  Calvinism  from  his 
philosophy  or  his  philosophy  from  his  Calvinism. 
In  him  they  are  juxtaposed,  not  united.  But  they 
are  not  equally  juxtaposed.  The  theology  over- 
shadows the  philosophy.  The  latter,  however,  is  of 
such  superior  merit  to  the  former  in  depth  of  in- 
sight and  cogency  of  reasoning,  that  one  is  irre- 
sistibly led  to  speculate  on  what  Edwards  would 
have  been,  if  the  philosophy  had  overshadowed  the 
theology.  One  recognizes  that  his  influence  would 
have  been  vastly  different,  that  it  has  consequently 
been  a  critical  influence  for  American  thought. 

This  juxtaposition  instead  of  union  of  philosophy 
and  theology  is  seen  in  Edwards's  other  work.  I 
will  consider  it  in  the  two  remaining  writings  which 
are  of  particular  philosophical  interest,  namely  the 
dissertations  on  "  God's  Last  End  in  the  Creation," 
and  the  "  Nature  of  True  Virtue."  These  disser- 
tations, although  never  published  by  Edwards,  were 
written  earlier  than  his  last  publication  in  1757. 
They  are  not,  even  if  actually  written  after  the 
"  Enquiry  Concerning  Freedom  of  Will,"  unpre- 
meditated works.  The  suggestion  of  them  is 
frequent  in  his  sermons  and  other  writings,  from 
which  we  could  largely  construct  them.     One  natu- 

58 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

rally  asks,  therefore,  why  they  were  not  published. 
Unpublished  manuscripts  left  by  eminent  men  is  so 
frequent  an  occurrence,  that  the  question  might  be 
answered  by  this  common  fact.  But  acquaintance 
with  those  dissertations  gives  a  pointed  interest  to 
the  question.  For  while  they  present  a  general 
agreement  with  the  rest  of  Edwards's  work,  and 
evince  that  juxtaposition  of  philosophy  and  theology 
which  has  been  remarked,  they  exhibit  a  real  simpli- 
fication of  his  thought  and  suggestive  indications  of 
almost  conscious  attempts  at  unification.  Their 
total  effect  is  rather  to  weaken  than  to  strengthen 
his  theology.  As  they  are  not  essentially  polemic, 
but  rather  more  the  work  of  a  disinterested  inquirer, 
the  logical  trend  of  the  thought  becomes  more 
natural  and  inevitable.  All  the  more  logical  revul- 
sion is  occasioned  consequently  by  the  juxtaposition 
of  the  elements  of  an  unrelated  theology.  One  is 
led  to  suspect  that  Edwards  was  becoming  conscious 
of  his  intellectual  duality,  and  that  the  dissertations 
were  not  published  because  they  must  consequently 
appear  to  him  as  incomplete,  as  faulty,  as  demand- 
ing the  work  of  adjustment.  His  original  power, 
his  versatility,  his  constant  growth,  make  it  improb- 
able that  his  death  in  his  fifty-fifth  year  occurred 
when  his  intellectual  life  was  fixed  beyond  alteration. 
One  is  tempted,  therefore,  to  regard  these  later 
writings,  not  as  the  mere  conclusions  of  previous 
positions,  but  as  works  of  promise. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  dissertation  on 

59 


WOODBRIDGE 

"  God's  Last  End  in  the  Creation  "  begins,  after  an 
explanation  of  terms,  with  a  consideration  of  "  what 
reason  dictates  in  this  affair,"  although  it  is  admitted 
that  the  affair  is  "properly  an  affair  of  divine  reve- 
lation." The  justification  of  reason's  dictates  in 
spite  of  this  fact,  really  amounts  to  submitting  the 
facts  of  revelation  to  the  judgment  of  reason.  For 
Edwards  contends  that  "no  notion  of  God's  last  end 
in  the  creation  of  the  world  is  agreeable  to  reason, 
which  would  truly  imply  any  indigence,  insufficiency, 
and  mutability  in  God."  This  dictate  of  reason, 
with  which,  as  Edwards  would  show,  revelation  is  in 
most  consistent  agreeableness,  contains  in  unde- 
veloped form  the  recognition  of  God's  last  end  in  the 
creation.  God  is  his  own  last  end.  The  developed 
form  of  this  statement  we  read,  wondering  if  indeed 
these  are  the  words  of  the  greatest  of  American 
theologians,  and  not  rather  the  words  of  some 
disciple  of  Plotinus  or  of  a  Christian  Spinoza.  "As 
there  is  an  infinite  fulness  of  all  possible  good  in 
God  — a  fulness  of  every  perfection,  of  all  excellency 
and  beauty,  and  of  infinite  happiness  —  and  as  this 
fulness  is  capable  of  communication,  or  emanation 
ad  extra;  so  it  seems  a  thing  amiable  and  valuable 
in  itself  that  this  infinite  fountain  of  good  should 
send  forth  abundant  streams.  And  as  this  is 
in  itself  excellent,  so  a  disposition  to  this  in  the 
divine  being,  must  be  looked  upon  as  an  excellent 
disposition.  Such  an  emanation  of  good  is,  in  some 
sense,   a  multiplication  of  it.     So  far  as  the  stream 

60 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

may  be  looked  upon  as  anything  besides  the  foun- 
tain, so  far  it  may  be  looked  on  as  an  increase  of 
good.  And  if  the  fulness  of  good  that  is  in  the 
fountain,  is  in  itself  excellent,  then  the  emanation, 
which  is  as  it  were  an  increase,  repetition,  or  multi- 
plication of  it,  is  excellent.  Thus  it  is  fit,  since 
there  is  an  infinite  fountain  of  light  and  knowledge, 
that  this  light  should  shine  forth  in  beams  of  com- 
municated knowledge  and  understanding  :  and  as 
there  is  an  infinite  fountain  of  holiness,  moral  excel- 
lence and  beauty,  that  so  it  should  flow  out  in 
communicated  holiness.  And  that,  as  there  is  an 
infinite  fulness  of  joy  and  happiness,  so  these  should 
have  an  emanation,  and  become  a  fountain  flowing 
out  in  abundant  streams,  as  beams  from  the  sun. 
Thus  it  appears  reasonable  to  suppose  that  it  was 
God's  last  end,  that  there  might  be  a  glorious  and 
abundant  emanation  of  his  infinite  fulness  of  good 
ad  extra,  or  without  himself  ;  and  that  the  disposition 
to  communicate  himself,  or  diffuse  his  own  FUL- 
NESS, was  what  moved  him  to  create  the  world," 
Mystic  pantheism  could  not  be  more  explicit. 

Edwards  appears  not  to  have  been  wholly  insen- 
sible to  the  possibility  of  such  an  interpretation. 
And  here  is  to  be  noted  an  instance  of  that  apparent 
consciousness  of  a  need  of  unification  which  has 
been  remarked.  The  first  objection  against  his 
view  which  he  considers  is  to  the  effect  that  his 
position  may  be  "inconsistent  with  God's  absolute 
independence    and     immutability  :     particularly,    as 

6i 


WOODBRIDGE 

though  God  were  inclined  to  a  communication  of 
his  fulness,  and  emanations  of  his  own  glory,  as 
being  his  own  most  glorious  and  complete  state." 
To  this  he  answers,  "  Many  have  wrong  notions  of 
God's  happiness,  as  resulting  from  his  absolute  self- 
sufficience,  independence  and  immutability.  Though 
it  be  true,  that  God's  glory  and  happiness  are  in  and 
of  himself,  are  infinite  and  cannot  be  added  to,  and 
unchangeable,  for  the  whole  and  every  part  of  which 
he  is  independent  of  the  creature  ;  yet  it  does  not 
hence  follow,  nor  is  it  true,  that  God  has  no  real  and 
proper  delight,  pleasure  or  happiness,  in  any  of  his 
acts  or  communications  relative  to  the  creature,  or 
effects  he  produces  in  them  ;  or  in  anything  he  sees 
in  his  creatures'  qualifications,  dispositions,  actions 
and  state.  God  may  have  a  real  and  proper  pleasure 
or  happiness  in  seeing  the  happy  state  of  the 
creature ;  yet  this  may  not  be  different  from  his 
delight  in  himself."  To  let  this  answer  suffice, 
reason  must  silence  its  questions.  It  is  no  answer 
at  all,  but  simply  a  theological  proposition  juxtaposed 
to  the  philosophy. 

The  silencing  of  reason  is  still  more  apparent  in 
his  second  answer  to  the  objection.  "  If  any  are 
not  satisfied  with  the  preceding  answer,  but  still 
insist  on  the  objection,  let  them  consider  whether 
they  can  devise  any  other  scheme  of  God's  last  end 
in  creating  the  world,  but  what  will  be  equally 
obnoxious  to  this  objection  in  its  full  force,  if  there 
be  any  force  in  it." 

62 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

Surely  we  have  in  this  dissertation  no  thorough 
consideration  of  what  reason  dictates  in  the  affair. 
He  has  in  effect,  as  Professor  Allen  justly  remarks, 
"  sacrificed  all  that  is  not  God,"  and  all  the  theology 
of  the  world  superimposed  and  insisted  on,  cannot 
avoid  that  sacrifice.  The  mind  that  produced  the 
work  on  the  will,  and  had  so  irresistibly  followed  the 
dictates  of  reason  up  to  this  point,  may  have  been 
unconscious  of  the  gap.  If  so,  this  unconsciousness 
reveals  anew  the  sharp  duality  in  this  great  intellect. 
If  not,  adjustment  of  some  sort  must  have  been  felt 
to  be  necessary,  before  the  work  could  be  given  to 
the  world. 

If  the  Calvinistic  theology  it  contains  should  be 
eliminated  from  the  dissertation  on  the  "  Nature  of 
True  Virtue,"  there  would  remain  a  conception  of 
virtue  almost  identical  with  Spinoza's.  Disinterested 
love  to  God  is  presented  as  the  highest  exercise  of 
the  virtuous  man,  who  will  exercise  it  highly  in  pro- 
portion to  his  knowledge  of  God,  and  also  will  desire 
that  as  many  as  possible  should  share  in  the  same 
exercise  and  enjoy  its  benefits.  These  benefits  do 
not  really  consist  in  rewards,  but  the  virtuous  soul 
finds  in  virtue  itself  its  true  good  and  highest  happi- 
ness. "  So  far  as  the  virtuous  mind  exercises  true 
virtue  in  benevolence  to  created  beings,  it  seeks  chiefly 
the  good  of  the  creature  ;  consisting  in  its  knowledge 
or  view  of  God's  glory  and  beauty,  its  union  with 
God,  conformity  and  love  to  him,  and  joy  in  him." 

This  is  all   in    thorough    harmony   with   Spinoza. 

63 


WOODBRIDGE 

But  Edwards's  total  conception  differs  from  Spinoza's 
in  one  very  important  particular.  With  Spinoza 
man  must  love  God  in  proportion  as  he  knows  God, 
and  ignorance  of  the  divine  nature  is  consequently 
the  cause  of  all  wickedness,  is  indeed  wickedness 
itself.  But  with  Edwards  man  may  know  God  com- 
pletely and  yet  remain  vicious.  The  devils  believe 
and  tremble,  but  cease  not,  therefore,  to  be  devils. 
For  while  virtue  grows  as  the  knowledge  of  God 
grows,  a  virtuous  disposition  must  first  be  given, 
natural  or  derived.  Without  such  a  virtuous  dispo- 
sition implanted  or  native  in  the  heart,  there  can  be 
no  virtuous  exercise.  Wherever  in  intelligent  beings 
this  disposition  is  lacking,  vice  must  prevail  in  spite 
of  perfect  knowledge  of  God  and  his  last  end  in  the 
creation.  "  Christians,"  says  Edwards,  "  have  the 
greatest  reason  to  believe,  from  the  scriptures,  that 
in  the  future  day  of  the  revelation  of  the  righteous 
judgment  of  God,  when  sinners  shall  be  called  to 
answer  before  their  judge,  and  all  their  wickedness, 
in  all  its  aggravations,  brought  forth  and  clearly 
manifested  in  the  perfect  light  of  that  day  ;  and  God 
shall  reprove  them,  and  set  their  sins  in  order  before 
them,  their  consciences  will  be  greatly  awakened 
and  convinced,  their  mouths  will  be  stopped,  all  stu- 
pidity of  conscience  will  be  at  an  end,  and  con- 
science will  have  its  full  exercise ;  and  therefore 
their  consciences  will  approve  the  dreadful  sentence 
of  the  judge  against  them  ;  and  seeing  that  they 
deserved  so  great  a  punishment,  will  join  with  the 

64 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

judge  in  condjcmning  them Then  the  sin  and 

wickedness  of  their  heart  will  come  to  its  highest 
dominion  and  completest  exercise;  they  shall  be 
wholly  left  of  God,  and  given  up  to  their  wickedness, 
even  as  the  devils  are  !  When  God  has  done  wait- 
ing on  sinners,  and  his  Spirit  done  striving  with 
them,  he  will  not  restrain  their  wickedness  as  he 
does  now.  But  sin  shall  then  rage  in  their  hearts, 
as  a  fire  no  longer  restrained  and  kept  under." 

This  emphasis  on  the  necessity  of  a  virtuous  dis- 
position to  the  exercise  of  virtue,  was  one  of  the  im- 
portant principles  in  Edwards's  doctrine  of  the  will. 
Its  reappearance  here  is  natural.  But  it  reappears 
with  such  force  and  clearness  as  to  amount  to  the 
recognition  pf  something  arbitrary  in  the  scheme  of 
things,  an  element  persistently  refusing  to  be  re- 
lated, a  reality  naturally  and  originally  obnoxious  to 
God.  It  seriously  interferes  with  the  divine  power. 
It  can  have  no  place  in  a  world  which  is  the  emana- 
tion of  the  divine  fulness  of  perfection.  One  is 
tempted  to  think  that  its  presence  in  Edwards's 
thinking  is  due  to  a  concession  to  his  theology,  that 
it  is  another  instance  of  that  unrelated  juxtaposition 
I  have  insisted  on.  And  so  it  may  well  be.  But  it 
serves  to  make  that  juxtaposition  still  more  apparent. 
It  is  true,  however,  that  this  dissertation  on  the 
nature  of  true  virtue,  if  taken  by  itself,  exhibits  a 
greater  degree  of  philosophical  thoroughness  than  is 
to  be  found  elsewhere  in  Edwards's  work.  What- 
ever may  have  influenced  him  thus  to  emphasize  the 

6S 


WOODBRIDGE 

underlying  necessity  of  a  virtuous  disposition  to  the 
exercise  of  virtue,  this  dissertation,  with  the  prin- 
ciple admitted,  is  most  thoroughly  worked  out.  And 
it  is  just  this  thoroughness  which  makes  the  dis- 
sertation emphasize  anew  the  duality  of  Edwards's 
mind.  It  emphasizes  it  so  emphatically,  that  the 
suspicion  is  once  more  aroused  that  he  was  be- 
ginning to  feel  the  need  of  adjustment  between  the 
unrelated  elements  of  his  thought. 

Lack  of  adjustment,  the  juxtaposition  of  unre- 
lated principles  in  an  ordinary  mind,  is  not  a  cause 
of  interest.  But  I  have  tried  to  point  out  that  in 
Edwards  there  is  no  ordinary  juxtaposition.  It  is 
extraordinary.  It  is  crucial  for  our  understanding 
of  the  man.  It  is  necessary  for  a  clear  character- 
ization of  his  influence.  It  reveals  itself  with  such 
steady  accumulation  as  to  amount  to  a  demand,  not 
altogether  conscious  perhaps,  for  a  revision  of  the 
whole  system.  It  reveals  Edwards  not  as  a  man  of 
a  single  idea,  with  opinions  changelessly  fixed  and 
doggedly  supported,  but  as  a  man  of  remarkable 
versatility,  of  steady  growth,  of  rich  promise,  but  as 
a  man  too,  who  only  late  in  life  gave  evidence  of  a 
possible  unification  of  the  diverse  elements  of  his 
nature.  Of  these  elements  the  theological  was  the 
most  prominent  both  by  his  exposition  and  his  per- 
sonal influence.  It  was  his  theology  that  he  be- 
queathed to  New  England,  his  theology,  be  it  said, 
however,  stamped  with  the  peculiar  force  of  his 
great  personality.     And  it  was  not  a  philosophically 

66 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

grounded  theology.  Its  own  force  spent,  it  could 
not  draw  on  Edwards's  other  work.  Its  failure  of 
continued  influence  becomes  his  failure.  Yet 
philosophy  was  there  with  unusual  excellence. 
Surely  one  must  recognize  that  Edwards  has  influ- 
enced American  thought  critically,  that  he  gave  to 
it,  in  its  first  significant  and  original  outburst,  the 
theological  instead  of  the  philosophical  cast,  with  a 
theology  left  so  unrelated  to  a  real  insight  into 
human  nature  and  the  world's  nature,  that  it  was 
bound  to  fail  with  the  failure  of  personal  conviction 
of  its  truth.      '^ 

A  man  so  profoundly  interesting  on  account  of 
his  versatility  and  the  peculiar  way  its  elements  were 
composed  in  him,  so  interesting  too  on  account  of 
the  nature  of  his  influence,  cannot  be  dismissed 
without  some  attempt  at  an  understanding  of  his 
intellectual  character.  It  is  too  easy  an  explanation 
of  him  which  would  point  to  his  time,  his  education, 
his  occupation.  For,  let  me  insist  again,  he  was 
distinctly  a  great  man.  He  did  not  merely  express 
the  thoughts  of  his  time,  or  meet  it  simply  in  the 
spirit  of  his  traditions.  He  stemmed  it  and  moulded 
it.  New  England  thought  was  already  making 
toward  that  colorless  theology  which  marked  it 
later.  That  he  checked.  It  was  decidedly  Arminian. 
He  made  it  Calvinistic.  To  his  own  personal  con- 
victions he  was  forced,  through  his  removal  from 
Northampton,  to  sacrifice  the  work  in  which  he  had 
unselfishly  spent  his  best  years.     His  time  does  not 

67 


WOODBRIDGE 

explain     him.       We    must    look    to    his    intellectual 
history. 

Perhaps  he  would  remain  altogether  enigmatic, 
were  it  not  for  what  he  has  told  us  of  himself,  and  for 
what  his  early  "  Notes  on  the  Mind  "  reveal.  These 
Notes  contain  an  outline  of  philosophy,  which  for 
penetration  and  breadth  of  interest  finds  no  superior 
in  the  work  of  other  minds  equally  mature.  More 
than  this,  it  surpasses  the  work  of  many  maturer 
minds  which  have  yet  received  the  recognition  of 
history.  We  know  that  its  inspiration  was  mainly 
Locke,  but  its  promise  of  superiority  to  him  is 
evident.  The  remarkable  verbal  similarity  these 
Notes  reveal  to  the  writings  of  Berkeley,  has  led  to  a 
comparison  of  Edwards  with  the  Irish  bishop  and  a 
search  for  traces  of  his  influence.  These  have  not 
been  found.  Nor  is  the  philosophy  unmistakably 
Berkeley's.  It  is  more  the  germ  of  that  mystic 
pantheism  which  was  disclosed  later  with  such  clear- 
ness in  the  dissertation  on  God's  Last  End  in  the 
Creation.  The  trend  of  his  thinking  is  not  so  much 
revealed  in  such  Berkeleyan  expressions  as  these  : 
•'When  we  say  that  the  World,  i.  e.  the  material 
Universe  exists  nowhere  but  in  the  mind,  we  have 
got  to  such  a  degree  of  strictness  and  abstraction, 
that  we  must  be  exceedingly  careful,  that  we  do  not 
confound  and  lose  ourselves  by  misapprehension. 
That  is  impossible,  that  it  should  be  meant,  that  all 
the  world  is  contained  in  the  narrow  compass  of  a 
few  inches  of  space,  in  little  ideas  in  the  place  of  the 

68 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

brain ;  for  that  would  be  a  contradiction  ;  for  we  are 
to  remember  that  the  human  body,  and  the  brain 
itself,  exist  only  mentally,  in  the  same  sense  that 
other  things  do ;  and  so  that,  which  we  call  place,  is 
an  idea  too.  Therefore  things  are  truly  in  those 
places  ;  for  what  we  mean,  when  we  say  so,  is  only, 
that  this  mode  of  our  idea  of  place  appertains  to 
such  an  idea.  We  would  not  therefore  be  under- 
stood to  deny,  that  things  are  where  they  seem  to 
be.  For  the  principles  we  lay  down,  if  they  are 
narrowly  looked  into,  do  not  infer  that.  Nor  will  it 
be  found,  that  they  at  all  make  void  Natural  Philos- 
ophy, or  the  science  of  the  Causes  or  Reasons  of 
corporeal  changes.  For  to  find  out  the  reasons  of 
things,  in  Natural  Philosophy,  is  only  to  find  out  the 
proportion  of  God's  acting.  And  the  cause  is  the 
same,  as  to  such  proportions,  whether  we  suppose 
the  World  only  mental,  in  our  sense,  or  no." 

The  trend  of  his  thinking  is  revealed  rather  in 
such  pantheistic  expressions  as  these  :  "  Seeing 
God  has  so  plainly  revealed  himself  to  us  ;  and  other 
minds  are  made  in  his  image,  and  are  emanations 
from  him  ;  we  may  judge  what  is  the  Excellence  of 
other  minds,  by  what  is  his,  which  we  have  shown  is 
Love.  His  Infinite  Beauty  is  his  Infinite  mutual 
Love  of  Himself.  Now  God  is  the  Prime  and 
Original  Being,  the  First  and  Last,  and  the  Pattern 
of  all,  and  has  the  sum  total  of  all  perfection.  We 
may  therefore,  doubtless,  conclude,  that  all  that  is 
the  perfection  of  Spirits  may  be  resolved  into  that 

69 


WOODBRIDGE 

which  is  God's  perfection,  which  is  Love." 
"  When  we  speak  of  Being  in  general,  we  may  be 
understood  of  the  Divine  Being,  for  he  is  an 
Infinite  Being  :  therefore  all  others  must  necessarily 
be  considered  as  nothing.  As  to  Bodies,  we  have 
shown  in  another  place,  that  they  have  no  proper 
Being"  of  their  own.  And  as  to  Spirits,  they  are  the 
communications  of  the  Great  Original  Spirit  ;  and 
doubtless,  in  metaphysical  strictness  and  propriety, 
He  is,  as  there  is  none  else.  He  is  likewise  In- 
finitely Excellent,  and  all  Excellence  and  Beauty  is 
derived  from  him,  in  the  same  manner  as  all  Being. 
And  all  other  Excellence,  is,  in  strictness  only  a 
shadow  of  his."  "  We  shall  be  in  danger,  when  we 
meditate  on  this  love  of  God  to  himself,  as  being  the 
thing  wherein  his  infinite  excellence  and  loveliness 
consists,  of  some  alloy  to  the  sweetness  of  our  view, 
by  its  appearing  with  something  of  the  aspect  and 
cast  of  what  we  call  self-love.  But  we  are  to  con- 
sider that  this  love  includes  in  it,  or  rather  is  the 
same  as,  a  love  to  everything,  as  they  are  all  com- 
munications of  himself.  So  that  we  are  to  conceive 
of  Divine  Excellence  as  the  Infinite  General  Love, 
that  which  reaches  all,  proportionally,  with  perfect 
purity  and  sweetness." 

Indeed  if  these  Notes  inspire  one  to  curious  re- 
search into  the  indebtedness  of  Edwards  to  others, 
Berkeley  is  but  one  of  several  philosophers  that 
will  be  suggested.  But  the  search  thus  far  has 
been   vain,  and    it    appears  true    that  its    vanity    is 

70 


THE    PHILOSOPHY    OF    EDWARDS 

due,  not  to  the  lack  of  evidence,  but  to  the  fact 
that  there  is  no  indebtedness  which  can  be  counted 
as  significant.  These  Notes  are  all  the  greater 
warrant,  therefore,  for  ranking  Edwards  among  the 
great,  original  minds. 

But  for  the  understanding  of  his  intellectual  his- 
tory, it  is  not  mainly  important  to  discover  the 
sources  of  his  ideas.  It  is  important  rather  to  note 
that  he  began  his  life  of  constructive  thought  in 
philosophy,  and  in  a  philosophy  grounded  in  reason, 
giving  little  promise  of  the  theologian  that  was  to 
be,  but  abundant  promise  of  the  philosopher  whose 
mysticism  should  increasingly  shine  forth  in  his 
latest  works,  in  part  a  reminiscence,  in  part  a  re- 
covery of  the  impulse  of  his  youth. 

This  philosophy,  however,  was  never  to  yield  its 
proper  fruitage.  It  was  arrested  by  emotional  ex- 
periences for  which  Edwards  himself  could  not  ac- 
count. He  became  a  theologian  of  his  peculiar  type, 
not  through  the  logical  processes  of  his  thinking, 
but  through  a  kind  of  mystical  intuition.  He  gives 
us  this  account  of  it  :  "I  remember  the  time  very 
well  when  I  seemed  to  be  convinced  and  fully 
satisfied  as  to  this  sovereignty  of  God,  and  his 
justice  in  thus  eternally  disposing  of  men  according 
to  his  sovereign  pleasure  ;  but  never  could  give  an 
account  how  or  by  what  means  I  was  thus  con- 
vinced, not  in  the  least  imagining  at  the  time,  nor  a 
long  time  after,  that  there  was  any  extraordinary  in- 
fluence of   God's   Spirit   in   it,  but   only  that  now  I 

71 


WOODBRIDGE 

saw  further,  and  my  mind  apprehended  the  justness 
and  reasonableness  of  it.  *  *  *  *  God's  abso- 
lute sovereignty  and  justice  with  respect  to  sal- 
vation is  what  my  mind  seems  to  rest  assured  of,  as 
much  as  of  anything  that  I  see  with  my  eyes." 

Supervening  upon  his  natural  philosophical  bent, 
such  experiences,  revealing  a  nature  swayed  as  much 
by  unanalyzed  emotions  as  by  reason,  account  for 
those  aspects  of  Edwards's  thought  which  have  been 
noted.  So  potent  were  those  experiences  in  their 
effect,  that  his  original  position  was  never  recovered 
in  its  simplicity  and  originality.  So  disrupting  were 
they  intellectually,  that  his  philosophy  and  theology 
remained  to  the  close  of  his  life  almost  completely 
divorced  and  unrelated.  Such  experiences  were  so 
consonant  with  Edwards's  native  mysticism,  that 
one  can  readily  understand  why  they  never  fully 
rose  to  the  dignity  of  a  contradiction  in  his  thinking. 
So  significant  were  they  for  his  influence  that  we 
remember  him,  not  as  the  greatest  of  American 
philosophers,  but  as  the  greatest  of  American 
Calvinists. 


72 


Address 
THE  THEOLOGY  OF  EDWARDS 

EGBERT  COFFIN  SMYTH,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History 

Andover  Theological  Seminary 


THE  THEOLOGY  OF  EDWARDS 


Edwards  is  too  large  for  ordinary  measuring  rods. 
The  best  appreciations  suggest  more  than  is  said, — 
are  best  for  this  reason.  There  is  always  in  him 
something  that  seems  to  require  the  supposition  of 
a  fourth  dimension. 

You  will  not  expect  me,  within  the  time  pre- 
scribed, to  review  his  theological  treatises,  nor  to 
state  in  detail  his  doctrinal  opinions,  either  with  or 
without  an  attempt  to  estimate  their  value.  I  shall 
take  the  subject  assigned,  "The  Theology  of 
Edwards,"  in  its  strictest  sense,  and  speak  —  mainly 
on  a  single  line  —  of  his  Doctrine  of  God.  But  in 
doing  this  I  shall  endeavor  to  keep  in  mind  two 
things, —  the  immediate  purpose  of  this  celebration, 
and  what  is  due  to  Edwards  in  specializing  in  re- 
spect to  any  part  of  his  thinking. 

We  meet  to  offer  a  sincere,  grateful,  intelligent 
tribute  to  his  memory,  to  uncover  anew,  if  we  may, 
the  sources  of  his  power,  to  feel  afresh  the  tonic  in- 
fluence of  his  vigorous  and  rigorous  reasoning,  to 
catch  some  fresh  inspiration  for  our  own  busy 
thoughts  and  lives,  to  come  again  under  the  influ- 
ence of  one  who  was  called  of  God  to  bring  many  of 
His  wandering  and  lost  children  into  their  Father's 
house,  and  guide  them  to  the  fountains  of  eternal 
truth. 

We  honor  him  most,  as  we  understand  him  best ; 
and  we  best  understand    him  as  we    discover    how 

75 


SMYTH 

marvellously  in  him,  mind  and  heart,  doctrine  and 
life,  the  boldest  and  loftiest  speculation  and  the 
purest  and  deepest  feeling  were  attuned,  one  to  the 
other,  in  full  rich  harmony  ;  how,  in  the  range  and 
variety  of  his  inquiries  and  studies,  and  the  growth 
and  progress  of  his  knowledge  and  opinions  through 
years  of  intensest  application  and  varied  ministrations, 
there  was  one  central  thought,  one  controlling  pur- 
pose ;  how,  also,  remarkable  as  is  his  analytic  power, 
he  seeks  for  wholes,  and  thinks  and  acts  in  wholes, 
as  when,  in  his  younger  years,  his  whole  soul,  in  a 
way  he  did  not  then  understand,  came  into  entire 
accord  with  the  absolute  sovereignty  of  God,  or, 
when,  the  year  before  he  died,  he  gave  to  the  Trust- 
ees of  the  College  at  Princeton,  as  a  reason  for 
hesitancy  about  accepting  their  offer  of  its  Presi- 
dency, that  he  'had  had  on  his  mind  and  heart  a 
great  work,  long  ago  begun,  a  History  of  Redemption, 
a  body  of  divinity,  in  an  entire  new  method,  .... 
a  method  which  appeared  to  him  the  most  beautiful 
and  entertaining,  wherein  every  divine  doctrine  will 
appear  to  the  greatest  advantage,  in  the  brightest 
light,  in  the  most  striking  manner,  showing  the  ad- 
mirable contexture  and  harmony  of  the  whole.' 

"  The  admirable  contexture  and  harmony  of  the 
whole,"  this  is  the  key  that  unlocks  for  us  the  inner- 
most chamber,  discloses  the  central  principle,  of 
Edwards's  thought. 

It  has  been  easy,  in  some  respects  to  miss  this. 
He  left  no  Summa  Theologica,  no  Body  of  Divinity. 

76 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EDWARDS 

His  works  are  special  Dissertations  and  Observations, 
Controversial  Treatises,  Sermons,  a  Life  of  Brainerd, 
Studies  and  Practical  Guides  in  Experimental  Re- 
ligion. His  Diary  ends  early.  His  Note  Books 
have  been  seen  by  but  few,  and  have  not  been  used 
so  as  to  derive  from  them  all  that  is  possible  for  a 
knowledge  of  the  history  of  his  thinking,  and  es- 
pecially for  the  light  they  may  shed  upon  its  unity. 
Yet  without  this  appreciation  misunderstanding  is 
quite  sure  to  arise.  I  could  say  more  on  this  point 
were  this  the  appropriate  occasion.  If  ever  there  was 
a  theologian  who  saw  a  whole,  and  was  guided  and 
controlled  by  the  sense  of  this  relationship  of  every 
part  or  aspect  of  universal  being  and  life — "the 
admirable  contexture  and  harmony  of  the  whole," — 
it  was  Jonathan  Edwards.  He  shed  no  tears,  so  far 
as  we  are  told,  when  he  was  dismissed  at  Northamp- 
ton, deep  as  was  the  wound  inflicted,  but  when  the 
council  at  Stockbridge  decided  in^  favor  of  his  under- 
taking a  most  honorable  work  in  a  position  of  emi- 
nence and  wide  influence,  though  he  had  long  been 
wonted  to  self-control,  the  tears  fell. 

A  study  of  Edwards's  theology  which  brings  us 
into  touch  with  its  inward  principle  and  development 
will  naturally  start  with  his  college  essay  entitled 
"  Of  Being,"  first  published  by  Dr.  Dwight  in  an 
appendix  to  the  Life  i.  It  was  characteristic  of  its 
author  to  seize  upon  this  topic,  and  treat  it  as  of 

'  An  exact  reprint  may  be  found  in  the  I'roceedivgs  of  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society ,  Oct.  1895,  pp.  241-245.  See  also  Ibid.,  Oct.  1896, 
pp.  251-252. 

17 


SMYTH 

primary  importance.  Something  is.  "  That  there 
should  absolutely  be  nothing  at  all  is  utterly  im- 
possible. The  mind  can  never,  let  it  stretch  its 
conceptions  ever  so  much,  bring  itself  to  conceive  of 
a  state  of  Perfect  nothing.  It  puts  the  mind  into 
mere  Convulsion  and  Confusion  to  endeavor  to  think 

of  such  a  state A  state  of  Absolute  nothing 

is  a  state  of  Absolute  Contradiction.  Absolute 
nothing  is  the  Aggregate  of  all  the  Absurd  (.'')  contra- 
dictions in  the  World  :  a  state  wherein  there  is 
neither  body,  nor  spirit,  nor  space  ;  neither  empty 
space  nor  full  space  ;  neither  little  nor  Great,  narrow 
nor  broad  ;  neither  infinitely  Great  space,  nor  finite 
space,  nor  a  mathematical  point  ;  neither  Up  nor 
Down;  .  .  no  such  thing  as  either  here  or  there, 
this  way  or  that  way,  or  only  one  way.  When  we 
go  about  to  form  an  idea  of  Perfect  nothing  we 
must  .  .  shut  out  of  our  minds  both  space  that  has 
something  in  it,  and  space  that  has  nothing  in  it,  .  , 
nor  must  we  suffer  our  thoughts  to  take  sanctuary 
in  a  mathematical  point.  When  we  Go  to  Expel  body 
out  of  Our  thoughts  we  must  Cease  not  to  leave 
empty  space  in  the  Room  of  it,  and  when  we  go  to 
expel  emptiness  from  Our  thoughts  we  must  not 
think  to  squeeze  it  out  by  anything  Close,  hard  and 
solid,  but  we  must  think  of  the  same  that  the  sleep- 
ing Rocks  dream  of,  and  not  till  then  shall  we 
Get  a  complete  idea  of  nothing." 

Something  is, —  Being,  infinite,  omnipresent,  eter- 
nal, the  consciousness  which   includes  all  other  con- 

78 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EDWARDS 

sciousnesses,  and  in  which  the  universe  has  its 
being. 

Edwards  never  lost  this  vivid  sense  of  God,  His 
Reality,  His  Immediacy.  It  is  the  first,  the  funda- 
mental thing  to  be  taken  into  account  in  an  under- 
standing of  his  Theology.  It  is  requisite  to  a  just 
interpretation  and  valuation  of  his  controversial 
treatises  —  necessary  as  a  knowledge  of  climate,  of 
sky,  soil,  water-courses,  to  a  science  of  the  growth 
of  flowers  or  forests,  necessary  as  atmosphere  to 
vitality.  It  is  more  instructive,  for  instance,  to  learn 
how  and  why  he  was  so  persistent  and  uncompro- 
mising a  Determinist,  could  not  be  satisfied  with 
what  has  been  called  "  soft  Determinism,"  than  to 
follow  his  tireless  logic  as  he  chases  an  ambiguity  or 
a  fallacy  out  of  the  world  and  beyond  the  bounds  in- 
habitable by  any  intelligence.  And  it  is  this  con- 
stant sense  of  God,  irrepressible,  pouring  forth  in 
vivid  metaphor  and  poetic  image,  and  fervent  appeal, 
in  words  of  force  and  fire,  and  again  of  calm  and 
sweet  delight,  that  draws  us  to  him,  and  while  we 
are  with  him  at  once  thrills  and  rests  our  spirits,  as 
when,  on  a  high  mountain  pass,  or  in  some  deep 
ravine,  with  craggy  steeps  and  signs  of  Titanic  ele- 
mental powers  all  about  us,  the  eye  rests  on  some 
perfect  flower.  At  the  heart  of  Edwards's  most 
rugged  and  vigorous  Determinism  is  the  immediate- 
ness,  the  very  peace,  of  God. 

This  Divine,  Infinite  Reality,  expressed  in  Being, 
necessary  to  thought,  implicit  in  all  finite  conscious- 

79 


SMYTH 

ness,  is  in  immediate  relation  to  the  human  spirit. 
This  immediateness  does  not  exclude  mediateness, — 
a  method  of  Divine  revelation  by  symbols  and  types, 
by  the  ministries  of  Nature,  prophets  and  priests, 
gospels  and  sacraments,  by  the  Incarnate  Word. 
But  it  does  mean  that  all  such  media  are  of  value  in 
so  far  as,  and  only  so  far  as,  there  is  in  them  and  by 
them  in  contact  with  our  spirits  the  living  God.  Is 
there  any  other  theologian  in  whose  experience  and 
teaching  this  realization  of  the  Divine  Presence  is  so 
palpable .''  It  is  the  more  noteworthy  because  never 
was  there  a  divine  who  gave  himself  more  diligently 
to  the  study  of  the  written  word,  following  it  not  only 
in  perusal,  but  in  annotation,  citation,  appli- 
cation, with  persevering  and  tireless  fidelity,  nor  one 
who  surpassed  him  in  power  of  analysis  and  deduc- 
tion. Yet  behind  the  letter  and  the  logic,  broader 
than  the  range  of  dialectic,  and  reaching  farther 
than  the  subtlest  discrimination  of  thought,  is  evi- 
dent, as  the  space  that  holds  the  countless  stars,  the 
Presence  to  his  inmost  consciousness  of  the  God  he 
loved  with  a  pure  surpassing  love  and  served  with  a 
marvelous  consecration. 

In  this  apprehension  of  the  Divine  as  real  Being, 
everywhere  present,  is  implied  its  knowableness. 
One  would  like  to  see  in  our  time  a  mind  like  that 
of  Edwards, —  or  Edwards  himself,  if  that  might 
be, —  dealing  with  the  Agnosticism  which  oppresses 
many.  How  he  would  toss  on  the  horns  of  his  dia- 
lectic a  scientific  knowing  that  we  do  not  and  can- 

80 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EDWARDS 

not  know,  that  religious  verities  cannot  be  verified  ! 
Agnosticism  as  a  belief,  a  knowledge,  or  a  bar  to 
knowledge,  would  seem  to  him  like  that  belief  in 
nothing  which  elicited  his  youthful  polemic,  and 
this  characteristic  comment  :  "  If  any  man  thinks 
that  he  Can  think  well  Enough  how  there  should  be 
nothing  I'll  engage  that  what  he  means  by  nothing  is 
as  much  something  as  anything  that  ever  he  thought 
of  in  his  Life,  and  I  believe  that  if  he  knew  what 
nothing  was  it  would  be  intuitively  evident  to  him 
that  it  Could  not  be." 

We  may  presume,  also,  that  with  the  early  Chris- 
tian Apologists  he  would  emphasize  that  the  soul  is 
naturally  capacitated  to  know  God,  and  that  such 
knowledge  has  always  been  in  some  degree  in  its 
possession  ;  that  not  only  is  it  found  where  the 
Christian  revelation  has  shed  its  light,  but  is  con- 
tained in  other  religions  as  well.  Such  is  his  con- 
tention in  one  of  his  unpublished  papers,  and  eagerly 
would  he  appropriate  whatever  progress  has  been 
made  in  these  later  days  in  the  science  of  compara- 
tive religion.  The  testimony  of  prophets  of  Jehovah, 
of  Christian  experience,  above  all  of  Him  who  spake 
as  never  man  spake,  would  flame  out  with  surpassing 
splendor,  for  the  theme  would  kindle  his  highest 
powers.  Especially,  we  may  believe,  would  he 
speak  with  reassuring  tones  to  any  who  are  now 
more  or  less  disquieted  by  what  is  termed,  rather 
vaguely,  and  sometimes  a  little  emptily,  the  changed 
view  of    Scripture, —  meaning,  however,  more   par- 

8i 


SMYTH 

ticularly,  new  suppositions  or  conclusions  as  to  the 
origin,  construction,  collection  of  its  several  books, 
in  a  word  new  light  upon  their  literary  history,  and 
their  relation  to  successive  changes  or  stages  in  the 
religious  progress  of  mankind. 

On  the  one  hand  we  may  be  sure  that  Edwards 
would  be  no  less  eager  than  the  most  enthusiastic 
scholar  to  learn  all  that  can  be  discovered  in  this 
field  of  investigation,  behind  no  one  in  courage  and 
sincerity  of  utterance.  Nor  would  his  high  idealism 
make  him  indifferent,  in  any  degree,  to  historic 
facts,  not  even  in  the  most  narrow  and  insufficient 
meaning  of  this  much  abused  phrase.  His  idealism 
was  not  subjectivism.  He  would  recognize  that 
there  are  facts  with  which  the  truth  of  divine  revela- 
tion is  bound  up,  which  are  its  actual  expression. 
Incommensurateness  of  fact  and  idea  would  not 
mean  to  him  their  disjunction. 

Nor  was  he  a  mere  mystic.  No  one  in  the  history 
of  our  churches  has  had  a  greater  influence  on  prac- 
tical piety.  He  insisted  on  charity  in  speech  and 
benevolence  in  deed.  Virtue  is  Love.  In  the  re- 
ligious movements  of  which  he  was  a  leader  he  ex- 
hibited sanity  and  sagacity.  It  is  enough  to  refer 
to  his  discriminating  treatment  of  the  inward  testi- 
mony of  the  Holy  Spirit.  And  though  he  did  not 
mingle  directly  in  political  affairs,  he  has  been 
credited  by  a  recent  historian  with  having,  "more 
than  any  other  man,  settled  the  principle  which  fully 
justified  to  the  American  mind  the  complete  sever- 

82 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EDWARDS 

ance  of  the   State  from  ecclesiastical  functions   or 


concern. 


1 


Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  noteworthy,  as  the 
author  to  whom  I  have  just  referred  points  out, 
that  this  service  was  rendered,  not  directly,  but 
through  Edwards's  religious  teaching.^  And  it  would 
still  doubtless  be  on  this  line,  and  with  this  power, 
that  he  would  influence,  if  living  among  us,  the 
doubt  and  distrust  of  our  time.  "The  gospel,"  he 
wrote,  after  witnessing,  analysing,  and  studying  in 
many  forms  its  divine  power, —  "The  gospel  of  the 
blessed  God  does  not  go  abroad  a  begging  for  its 
evidence  so  much  as  some  think :  it  has  its  highest 
and  most  proper  evidence  in  itself."  ^  "Unless  men 
may  come  to  a  reasonable  solid  persuasion  and  con- 
viction of  the  truth  of  the  gospel  ...  .  by  a  sight 
of  its  glory,  it  is  impossible  that  those  who  are 
illiterate,  and  unacquainted  with  history  should  have 
any    thorough    and    effectual    conviction    of    it    at 

all After  all  that  learned  men  have  said  to 

them,  there  will  remain  innumerable  doubts  on  their 
minds  ;  they  will  be  ready,  when  pinched  with  some 
great  trial  of  their  faith,  to  say  '  How  do  I  know 
this  or  that  ?  How  do  I  know  when  these  histories 
were  written  .-'  Learned  men  ....  tell  me  there 
is  equal  reason  to  believe  these  facts,  as  any  what- 
soever that  are  related  at  such  a  distance  ;  but  how 

^  The  Rise  of  Religious  Liberty  in  America,  A  History.  By  Sanford 
H.  Cobb,  N.  Y.     The  Macmillan  Co.,  1902.     Page  485. 

2/6.,  pp.  485-486. 

3  Treatise  on  Religious  Affections,  Sect.  V.,  I.  Works,  Vol.  V.,  p. 
186;  ed.  Dwight. 

83 


SMYTH 

do  I  know  that   other    facts    which  are  related    of 
those  ages  ever  were  ? '  "  i 

Edwards's  solution  of  the  difficulty  of  the  un- 
learned is  good  for  all.  The  scholar  needs  it  as 
well  as  others.  Still  the  gospel  is  its  own  best  evi- 
dence ;  its  demonstration  is  "the  demonstration  of 
the  Spirit  and  of  power."  Edwards  knew  this  gospel 
by  its  supreme  result  in  character  and  life ;  knew  it 
in  his  own  protracted,  analysed,  tested,  profound  ex- 
perience ;  saw  it  in  a  life,  united  with  his  own,  so 
constant  in  cheerfulness,  benevolence,  devoutness, 
divine  communion,  that  its  spiritual  raptures  seem 
scarcely  more  wonderful  than  it  would  have  been 
had  they  not  been  vouchsafed  ;  observed  it  in  its 
effect  in  many  places  and  successive  seasons,  in 
persons  of  various  ranks,  callings  and  ages,  and  this 
with  as  keen  a  psychological  eye  as  one  may  read 
of,  quickened  in  its  watchfulness  by  a  profound  sense 
of  responsibility;  and  in  these  impressive  and 
memorable  words  he  gives  us  his  testimony  both  as 
to  the  reality  and  value  of  the  knowledge  the  gospel 
imparts  :  "  He  that  sees  the  beauty  of  holiness,  or 
true  moral  good,  sees  the  greatest  and  most  impor- 
tant thing  in  the  world.  .  .  .  Unless  this  is  seen 
nothing  is  seen  that  is  worth  the  seeing  ;  for  there 
is  no  other  true  excellency  or  beauty.  Unless  this 
be  understood,  nothing  is  understood  worthy  the 
exercise  of  the  noble  faculty  of  understanding.  This 
is  the  beauty  of  the  Godhead,  the  divinity  of  divinity 

•  Itnd.,  pp.  182-183. 

84 


THE    THEOLOGY   OF    EDWARDS 

(if  I  may  so  speak),  the  good  of  the  infinite  fountain 
of  good.  Without  this,  God  Himself  (if  that  were 
possible)  would  be  an  infinite  evil ;  we  ourselves  had 
better  never  have  been,  and  there  had  better  have 
been  no  being.  He  therefore  in  effect  knows  noth- 
ing that  knows  not  this  ;  his  knowledge  is  but  the 
shadow  of  knowledge,  or  the  form  of  knowledge,  as 
the  apostle  calls  it And  well  may  regen- 
eration, in  which  this  divine  sense  is  given  to  the 
soul  by  its  Creator,  be  represented  as  opening  the 
blind  eyes,  raising  the  dead,  and  bringing  a  person 
into  a  new  world."  ^ 

Edwards  included  in  what  may  be  known  of  God 
His  existence  as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Spirit.  In 
the  editions  of  his  collected  works  there  is  no  formal 
discussion  of  this  subject.  The  doctrine,  however, 
plainly  appears  in  various  aspects,  particularly  in 
affecting  representations  of  the  excellence  and  glory 
of  the  Redeemer,  and  discriminating  discussions  of 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  In  general  it  may  be 
said  that  it  pervades  his  system  of  theology,  so  that 
this  would  be  unintelligible  without  it.  The  doc- 
trine, in  a  word,  is  present  in  his  published  writings, 
as  it  generally  is  in  Holy  Scripture,  that  is,  in  ob- 
vious presuppositions,  implications,  and  practical 
applications.  It  sheds  light  upon  the  most  intimate 
and  profound  experiences  revealed  in  the  Christian 
consciousness,  and  is  implied  in  manifold  known 
operations  and  effects  pertaining  to  the  life  of  the 

'  Ihxd.,  p.  J58. 

85 


SMYTH 

children  of  God.  It  makes  the  via  cruets  a  via  lucis. 
It  belongs  to  the  far,  high,  pure,  ever  burning  lights 
that  guide  upward  to  the  immediate  vision  of  Him 
all  whose  blessedness  and  majesty  and  glory,  with 
the  entire  good  of  the  universe,  are  involved  and 
insured  in  this,  that  He  is  eternally  and  essentially 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 

In  the  delightful  "  Treatise  on  Grace,"  printed 
for  private  circulation  by  Mr.  Grosart,  Edwards  says, 
"  Though  the  word  person  be  rarely  used  in  the 
Scriptures,  yet  I  believe  that  we  have  no  word  in 
the  English  language  that  does  so  naturally  repre- 
sent what  the  Scripture  reveals  of  the  distinction  of 
the  eternal  Three, —  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  — 
as  to  say,  they  are  one  God,  but  three  persons."  ^ 
He  recognizes  also  the  mystery  of  the  doctrine,  and 
our  dependence  for  knowledge  and  guidance  re- 
specting it  on  Sacred  Scripture,  which,  he  says, — 
referring  directly  to  an  inquiry  into  the  nature  of 
the  Holy  Spirit, — "  certainly  should  be  our  rule  in 
matters  so  much  above  reason  and  our  own  notions."  ^ 

In  Manuscripts  mostly  as  yet  unpublished,  either 
in  whole  or  in  part,  are  numerous  papers  on  the 
subject.  I  may  say  in  passing  that  when  in  this 
address  I  use  the  term  "  Observation,"  or  "Obser- 
vations," for  a  source  of  information  respecting 
Edwards's  opinions,  I  refer  to  statements  derived 
from  these  Manuscripts. 


I  Op.  cit.,  p.  43. 
2/6.,  pp.  43,47- 


86 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EDWARDS 

How  often  we  come  closest  to  some  great  leader, 
in  his  deepest  thoughts  and  aims,  as  a  biographer 
gives  us  a  glimpse  of  his  youth,  its  intuitions,  per- 
ceptions, aspirations,  dreams.  The  key  to  the  life 
usually  hangs  in  that  closet.  Whatever  critics  may 
conclude,  the  Church  will  always  be  profoundly 
grateful  for  the  picture  in  the  Third  Gospel  of  the 
Child  Jesus  among  the  doctors. 

A  study  of  the  Observations  of  Edwards  shows 
that  deep  thoughts  upon  the  Trinity  came  to  him  in 
the  beginnings  of  his  theological  studies,  indeed, 
some  paragraphs  in  the  published  Series  entitled 
"The  Mind,"  in  all  probability  carry  us  back  yet 
farther.^  It  appears,  also,  that  for  a  number  of 
years,  perhaps  down  close  upon  the  time  when  he 
must  have  been  much  absorbed  in  labors  connected 
with  the  "  Revival,"  and  the  "  Great  Awakening," 
and  again  after  he  had  left  Northampton,  that  is  to 
the  last,  the  same  theme  engaged  his  thought. ^ 
Nowhere  is  there  any  indication  of  dissatisfaction 
with  the  accepted  historic  doctrine.  Rather  it  is  an 
endeavor,  by  what  the  writer  himself  regards  as  in- 
tense thought,  to  bring  the  doctrine  more  clearly  to 

'See  No.  I.  Excellency  [Dwight's,  ed.  I.  pp.  696,  697];  also,  No.  45, 
Paragraphs  1,  2,  4,  9,  12  [/i.,  pp.  699,  700,  701].  The  earliest  Observation 
on  the  Trinity  in  the  series  entitled  "  Aliscellanies  "  is  numbered  94,  which 
is  equivalent  to  142.  The  number  52  is  usually  added  to  those  in  this  series 
on  account^of  its  beginning  with  the  alphabet,— first  a  single  letter,  then 
double  letters.  But  I  find  that  there  is  no  J  nor  ,J7,  also  no  r  nor  vv,  so  that 
the  added  number  should  be  48.  No.  i,  of  Series  "  The  Mind,"  is  appar- 
ently, unless  "  Of  Being  "  is  prior,  the  earliest  college  composition  by  Ed- 
wards of  which  we  have  any  knowledge.  It  was  probably  composed  in  his 
Sophomore  or  early  in  his  Junior  year.  It  contains  the  germ  of  his  many 
subsequent  philosophical  remarks  upon  the  Trinity.  No.  94(142)  of  the 
"  Miscellanies"  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  towards  the  close  of  his 
residence  at  the  College  as  a  graduate  student  ( i72o-i722),  and  before  his 
Tutorship.    See  Dwight,  I.  p.  56 ;  also  Appendix  I.  to  this  volume,  No.  A. 

87 


SMYTH 

view,  and  this  by  seeing  it  as  reflected  in  the  mirror 
of  self-consciousness.  The  attempt  was  not  novel, 
but  it  is  remarkable  in  its  clearness  of  conception, 
and  in  its  presentation  and  answering  of  objections. 

I  had  prepared  a  statement  of  its  positions  and 
method,  with  quotations  from  hitherto  unused  doc- 
uments, but  must  omit  the  reading,  that  I  may 
allude  to  other  topics.^  What  is  most  striking,  for 
myself  I  should  say  instructive  and  helpful,  in  the 
discussions  is  the  clear  conviction,  the  fearless  claim 
of  the  Reasonableness  of  the  doctrine  from  the  point 
of  view  of  what  the  writer  calls  "  naked  Reason," 
the  repeated  assertion  of  the  power  of  human  reason 
to  deal  with  the  subject,  and  the  foundation  of  the 
claim  in  a  broader  view  of  the  likeness  of  man  to 
God.  In  the  human  spirit  there  is  a  three-fold  dis- 
tinction which  is  a  resemblance  to  the  Trinity  of  the 
Divine  Nature.  I  may  not  conceal  my  impression 
that  it  would  have  been  happy  for  the  New  England 
Theology,  at  least,  and  the  interests  it  represents, 
if  Edwards's  thoughts  on  this  subject  had  obtained 
an  earlier  and  wider  publicity.  I  must,  however, 
add  with  equal  frankness  and  distinctness  that  I 
have  no  suspicion  that  they  have  ever  been  withheld 
from  any  doubt  as  to  the  writer's  Trinitarianism. 

For  the  reason  already  suggested  I  must  omit 
what  I  had  written  respecting  his  treatment  of  the 
Incarnation, —  except  to  say  that  the  same  principle 
which  guides  his  thought  on  the  Trinity  is  applied 

I  See  Appendix  I.  A. 

88 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EDWARDS 

by  him  to  this  doctrine.  I  refer  to  the  principle  of 
man's  likeness  to  his  Maker.  Edwards  thus  recog- 
nizes distinctly  and  interestedly,  what  has  become  a 
first  principle  in  our  later  and  best  Christologies.^ 
He  does  not,  however,  follow  out  this  principle  to 
its  legitimate  results  in  our  conception  of  the  Divine 
method  of  recovering  men  to  God.  That  which  is 
essential  in  the  constitution  of  the  Redeemer's  Per- 
son must  be  fundamental  in  our  interpretation  of 
what  He  is  and  does  for  us  as  our  Redeemer. 
There  is,  through  the  Divine  Creative  Son,  who  be- 
came man,  a  natural  sonship  of  man  to  God  which 
must  have  a  place  in  our  thought  of  the  sonship 
which  is  by  grace.  To  have  missed  this  application 
of  his  own  principle  may  be  regarded  as  a  chief 
immediate  cause  both  of  what  was  most  excessive 
and  defective  in  Edwards's  teaching. 

His  thought  of  God  is  still  further  disclosed  to  us 
in  his  interpretation  of  the  revealed  Purpose  or  End 
of  God  in  Creation.  His  "Dissertation"  on  this 
topic,  which  ranks  with  his  principal  works,  was 
written,  it  is  supposed,  for  publication,  though  it  did 
not  appear  until  several  years  after  his  decease. 
From  notes  found  among  his  papers  it  was  con- 
jectured that  he  was  thinking  of  some  revision  of  it, 
but  no  evidence  has  appeared  that  he  was  meditating 
any  material  change. 

The  Observations  contain  numerous  papers  on  the 
same  theme,  running  from  his  early  days  into  the 

'  See  Appendix  I.  B. 

89 


SMYTH 

years  at  Stockbridge.  In  these  manuscripts  we 
overhear  Edwards  saying  to  himself  in  his  study 
substantially  what  is  expressed  in  the  "  Disserta- 
tion." The  light  of  the  one  blends  harmoniously 
with  that  of  the  other.  Yet  there  is  in  the  unpub- 
lished series  a  fascinating  variety  and  freshness  of 
utterance,  and  as  we  follow  in  them  the  growth  of 
his  thought,  we  come  in  some  respects  into  closer  in- 
timacy with  it,  and  are  impressed  with  its  richness 
and  fulness. 

Several  questions  have  arisen  in  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  "  Dissertation." 

Does  its  author  regard  happiness  as  the  End  } 
Does  he  subordinate  virtue  to  happiness  .•*  Does  he 
understand,  in  making  the  glory  of  God  the  End, 
that  receiving  glory  is  what  is  aimed  at,  so  that  the 
"  apparent  effect  "  of  what  is  said  is,  the  glorification 
of  "  an  infinite  and  celestial  selfishness  .■'  "  Was  he 
perplexed  in  thought,  when  he  wrote  the  "  Disser- 
tation," by  seeing  before  him,  in  his  recoil  from 
Deism,  a  menacing  pantheism  .-'  And  for  relief  was 
he  in  his  last  years,  turning  for  the  first  time  to  the 
"  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  .-'  " 

I  think,  after  examining  the  Observations  as  well 
as  reading  anew  the  "  Dissertation,"  that  these  ques- 
tions must  all  be  answered  in  the  negative,  although 
Happiness  no  doubt  enters  largely  into  Edwards's 
thought  of  the  Divine  Purpose. 

The  Observations  are  most  emphatic  in  their  evi- 
dence   that    Edwards's    thought  is   not    that    God's 

90 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EDWARDS 

chief  end  in  creation  is  that  of  receiving  glory.  His 
conception  is  precisely  the  opposite.  His  funda- 
mental thought  of  God, —  one  that  he  connects 
again  and  again  with  Creation, —  is  that  of  a  Being 
whose  absolute  Perfection  implies  self-impartation, 
reciprocity,  mutual  Love,  which  itself  is  an  energy 
so  intense  and  complete  that  into  it  as  an  act  of  in- 
tercommunication is  poured  the  fullness  of  Infinite 
Being.  This  conception  of  the  Trinity  Edwards 
early  and  late  connects  with  the  Creation  of  the 
Universe.  God  does  not  create  to  meet  a  deficiency 
in  his  own  nature,  but  just  the  contrary.  He  cre- 
ates because  of  the  plenitude  of  His  Being,  as  a  full 
fountain  overflows.  His  glory  is  to  give.  He 
creates  to  communicate, —  to  give  Himself,  to  be  the 
creature's  good.^ 

Edwards  taught  nothing  new  in  presenting  the 
glory  of  God  as  the  End  of  the  Creation,  but  he 
greatly  enriched  its  interpretation.  He  smote  the 
rock,  and  the  living  waters  flowed.  With  the  bless- 
ing of  God  he  made  the  truth  productive  of  noblest 
service,  in  our  churches  at  home  and  on  many  a 
mission  field,  from  men  who  lived  to  glorify  God. 
And  into  what  simplicity,  purity,  disinterestedness 
of  motive,  and  inward  tranquility,  and  liberation  of 
energies  of  consecrated  service,  they  came  in  the 
divine  communion  into  which  their  spirits  were 
brought.  Life  under  the  sternest  skies,  on  the 
stormiest  seas,  in  the  farthest  wildernesses,  was  under 

'  See  Appendix  I.  C. 

91 


SMYTH 

the  care  and  guidance  of  a  Power  known  in  their 
own  reason  and  deepest  experience  to  be  supreme. 
The  Universe  was  their  Friend,  sustaining  them, 
moving  them  ever  onward,  as,  by  a  returning 
voyager,  his  ship  beneath  his  feet  is  felt,  with  a 
thrill  of  joy,  to  be  bearing  him,  with  the  whole  mo- 
mentum of  its  mighty  mass,  homeward. 

Homeward  to  God,  whose  we  are  and  from  whom 
we  came — this  is  the  innermost  meaning  and  the 
climax  of  Edwards's  Theology. 

We  may  get  a  better  doctrine  of  the  Will  than  he 
maintained,  though  never  without  him,  for  he  has 
made  forever  secure  in  thought  the  doctrine  of  mo- 
tive. We  may  widen  our  conceptions  beyond  his 
ken  in  respect  to  the  methods  of  divine  grace, —  its 
approaches,  and  the  opportunities  of  receiving  it, 
but  well  will  it  be  with  us  if  we  come  as  fully  as  he 
under  the  constraining  power  of  such  love,  and  drink 
as  deeply  at  its  celestial  springs, 

I  had  intended  to  say  something  on  Edwards's 
views  of  Divine  Sovereignty,  on  his  Determinism, 
perhaps  on  his  severities,  —  but  it  is  impossible. 
The  problem  of  Liberty  and  Necessity,  like  that  of 
Realism  and  Idealism,  is  not  merely  one  of  Psy- 
chology. It  must  be  solved,  if  at  all,  in  the  realm 
of  Philosophy.  Edwards  rises  to  this  higher  level. 
It  is  his  native  air.  His  conception  of  Perfect 
Being  contains  the  Trinity,  his  thought  of  personal 
freedom  merges  in  the  Liberty  of  the  sons  of  God. 
We  have  broken  with  him,  and  shall  do  so  again  and 

92 


THE    THEOLOGY    OF    EDWARDS 

again,  but  anon  shall  look  and  see  him  on  some 
higher  range,  above  our  clouds.  The  deepest  phil- 
osophical and  religious  thought  of  our  time,  on  most 
important  lines,  if  I  mistake  not,  is  moving  upward 
on  the  way  which  led  him  in  thought  to  God. 

Homeward  to  God — this  is  indeed  the  sum  of 
Edwards's  Theology  ;  yet  I  should  be  unjust  to  one 
who  saw  all  divinity  comprised  in  a  History  of  Re- 
demption, if  I  did  not  add.  Homeward  by  Him  who 
came  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost,  Christ  and  Him 
crucified.  Edwards  summons  us  to  know  God  by 
Reason, —  yet  by  Faith.  Would  he  not  say  :  See 
Him,  know  Him,  and  yourself,  and  all  besides, 
through  the  eyes  that  opened  in  the  manger,  turned 
with  compassion  to  the  multitude,  looked  on  Peter 
in  his  sin,  and  closed  on  the  cross  to  open  again 
upon  a  world  redeemed. 


93 


roem 

A  WITNESS  TO  THE  TRUTH 

BY 

SAMUEL  VALENTINE  COLE.  D.D. 
President  of  Wheaton  Seminary 


A  WITNESS  TO  THE  TRUTH 

I. 

God's  truth  has  many  voices  ;  sun  and  star 
And  mountain  and  the  deep  that  rolls  afar, 
Speak  the  great  language  ;  and,  of  mightier  worth, 
The  lips  and  lives  of  Godlike  men  on  earth. 

For  truth  wrought  out  in  human  life  has  power 

Which  no  truth  else  has  —  since  man's  natal  hour. 

What  were  the  world  without  the  long,  strong  chain 

Of  faithful  witnesses,  whose  heart  and  brain 

Have  throbbed  with  truth  God  gave  them  ?  without  these 

Who,  as  with  hands  that  link  together,  stand 

Reaching  across  the  years  to  that  dear  Hand 

Which  touched  blind  eyes  to  sight,  wrote  on  the  sand. 

And  lifted  Peter  from  the  drowning  seas  .-• 

Who,  better  than  through  book  or  hymn  or  creed, 

Draw  down  their  living  line  the  fire  we  need 

Of  life  from  Him  who  is  the  Life  indeed  ? 

II. 

A  good  man's  work  is  of  his  time  and  place 
Where  Duty  lifts  the  fulness  of  her  face  ; 
Translate  it  elsewhere  and  you  do  him  wrong  ; 
His  life,  his  spirit  —  what  of  great  and  fair 
And  true  was  in  him  —  O,  that  doth  belong 
To  all  the  ages  and  dwells  everywhere  ! 

97 


COLE 

And  there  he  stands,  this  nobly-moulded  man  ; 

You  can  not  miss  him  if  you  turn  and  scan 

The  land's  horizon  ;  howsoe'er  men  talk, 

He  still  is  of  us  ;  no  mere  name  ;  a  rock 

The  floods  may  beat  upon  nor  wash  away ; 

Foregatherer  of  the  times ;  his  loftier  height 

Flushed  with  the  gleams  of  sweetness  and  of  light 

That  wait  their  fulness  till  some  later  day ; 

An  eagle  spirit  soaring  in  the  sky 

And  mingling  with  the  things  that  can  not  die. 

How  full  of  fire  he  was,  and  how  sincere, 
Soldier  of  faith  and  conscience  without  fear  ! 
And  humble  as  the  little  springtime  flower 
Opening  its  heart  out  to  the  Heavenly  Power ; 
Poet,  and  dreamer  of  the  things  to  be  ; 
A  man  of  Godly  vision  ;  —  such  was  he, 
This  Dante  of  New  England,  who  descried 
The  dread  Inferno  of  man's  sin  and  pride  ; 
The  Purgatorio  where  his  eyes  might  trace 
The  workings  out  and  upward  of  God's  grace  ; 
And  yet  who  clomb  with  happier  step  the  slope 
Of  man's  aspiring  and  undying  hope 
Toward  Paradiso,  there  to  find  his  goal 
At  last,  —  the  Blessed  Vision  of  the  Soul ! 

HI. 

All  this  he  was,  whatever  be  the  name 
He  goes  by  in  the  roll  of  earthly  fame. 

98 


A    WITNESS    TO    THE    TRUTH 

We  judge  him  as  we  would  ourselves  alway 

Be  judged  ;  as  Christ  will  judge  the  world  one  day  ; 

Not  by  things  done,  however  great  they  be, 

But  by  those  longings  which  immortally 

Outrun  achievement  since  the  world  began  ; 

Yea,  by  the  spirit  in  him  ;  that's  the  man. 

What  though  the  vain  world  scoffed  and  paths  grew  dim, 

He  had  one  Master  and  he  followed  Him. 

He  wielded  truth  to  meet  the  age's  stress 

Of  circumstance,  nor  made  it  truth  the  less. 

Truth  is  a  sword  that  flashes,  now  this  way, 

Now  that,  the  single  purpose  to  obey. 

Nay,  truth  is  large ;  no  man  hath  seen  the  whole  ; 

Larger  than  words ;  it  brooks  not  the  control 

Of  argument  and  of  distinctions  nice  ; 

No  age  or  creed  can  hold  it,  no  device 

Of  speech  or  language ;  ay,  no  syllogism  : 

Truth  is  the  sun,  and  reasoning  is  the  prism 

You  lift  before  it ;  whence  the  light  is  thrown 

In  various  colors  ;  each  man  takes  his  own. 

If  this  man  takes  the  red,  as  you  the  blue. 

Is  yours  the  whole  ?  and  is  his  truth  not  true  ? 

Spirit  is  truth,  howe'er  the  colors  fall  ; 

The  fact  comes  back  to  spirit  after  all. 

IV. 

Secure,  invincible,  the  man  who  dare 

Obey  his  vision  —  mark  what  courage  there !  — 

99 


COLE 

Dare  take  the  sword  of  his  belief  in  hand, 
Whole-hearted  face  the  world  with  it,  and  stand. 
And  mind  not  sacrifice,  and  count  fame  dross. 
For  truth's  dear  sake,  and  life  and  all  things  loss. 
And  never  dream  of  failure,  never  doubt 
What  issue  when  the  stars  of  God  come  out  ! 

And  would  that  we  had  power  like  him  to  rise 
Clear  of  the  thraldom  of  all  compromise. 
Like  him  whose  feet  on  this  foundation  stood,  — 
That  God  is  sovereign  and  that  God  is  good. 
Is  such  a  creed  outworn  ?     And  tell  me,  pray, 
Have  we  no  use  for  it  ?     Alas  the  day, 
Amid  the  things  that  savor  of  the  sod. 
If  men  forget  the  sovereign  rights  of  God ! 
The  true  life's  master-word  is  still.  Obey. 


The  man  of  power  rejoicing  cries,  "  I  can  ;  " 
"  I  may,"  the  man  of  pleasure  ;  but  we  trust, 

And  all  the  world  trusts  with  us,  still  the  man 
Hearing  a  different  voice,  who  says,  '*  I  must." 

O  Conscience,  Conscience,  how  we  need  thee  now ! 

Wind,  fire,  and  earthquake  pass ;  the  time  abounds 
In  these  great  voices  ;  but,  O,  where  art  thou  ? 

Is  thy  voice  lost  amid  life's  grosser  sounds  ? 


A    WITNESS    TO    THE    TRUTH 

Or  art  thou  fled  across  the  golden  bars 
Of  evening  with  thy  purer  light  to  shine 

Somewhere  far  off,  beyond  the  quiet  stars, 
Far  off,  and  leave  us  without  guide  or  sign  ? 

Not  so  ;  earth's  towers  and  battlements  decay  ; 

Thrones  tremble  and  fall ;  old  sceptres  lose  control ; 
But,  as  God  lives,  thou  livest ;  thou  wilt  stay, 

O  Conscience,  God's  vicegerent  in  the  soul. 

We  are  thy  bondmen  and  thy  ways  are  good  ; 

Thou  art  what  makes  us  greater  than  the  dust 
We  came  from  ;  and  still,  howsoe'er  we  would. 

Thy  law  is  ever  on  us  and  we  must. 

VI. 

The  man  who  takes  "  an  inward  sweet  delight 

In  God,"  shines  like  a  candle  in  the  night ; 

The  world's  black  shadow  of  care  and  doubt  and  sin 

Is  beaten  backward  by  that  power  within  ; 

He  walks  in  freedom  ;  neither  time  nor  place 

Can  fetter  such  a  spirit ;  in  his  face 

A  light,  not  of  this  earth,  forever  clings  ; 

For,  when  he  will,  strong  spiritual  wings 

Bear  him  aloft,  till  silent  grows  all  strife, 

Silent  the  tumult  and  the  toil  of  life  ; 

The  homes  of  men,  far  off,  like  grains  of  sand 

Lie  scattered  along  the  wrinkles  of  the  land, 

All  silent ;  not  a  sound  or  breath  may  rise 

lOI 


COLE 

To  mar  the  eternal  harmony  of  those  skies 
Through  which  he  goes,  still  higher,  toward  the  line 
Where  sun  and  moon  have  no  more  need  to  shine ; 
And  there,  where  sordid  feet  have  never  trod. 
He  walks  in  joy  the  table-lands  of  God. 

VII. 
How  much  he  hath  to  teach  us  even  yet, 
Lest  life  should  kill  us  with  its  toil  and  fret  ! 
Things  of  the  earth  men  seek  to  have  and  hold  ; 
They  build  and  waste  again  their  mounds  of  gold. 
O  me  !  the  din  of  life,  the  bell  that  peals. 
The  traffic,  and  the  roaring  of  the  wheels  ! 
Work  glows  and  grows  and  satisfies  us  not ; 
Weary  we  are  of  what  our  hands  have  wrought. 
Weary  of  action  with  no  time  for  thought. 
The  much  we  do  —  how  little  it  must  count 
Without  some  pattern  showed  us  in  the  mount ! 

Who  seeks  and  loves  the  company  of  great 
Ideals,  and  moves  among  them,  soon  or  late 
Will  learn  their  ways  and  language,  unaware 
Take  on  their  likeness,  ay,  and  some  day  share 
Their  immortality,  as  this  man  now 
Before  whose  life  we  reverently  bow, 

VIII. 

So  shines  the  lamp  of  Edwards  ;  still  it  sends 
One  golden  beam  down  the  long  track  of  years. 


A    WITNESS    TO    THE    TRUTH 

This  resolute  truth  which  neither  yields  nor  spends,  — 
That  life,  true  life,  is  not  of  what  appears. 
Not  of  the  things  the  world  piles  wide  and  high  ; 
'Tis  of  the  spirit  and  will  never  die. 

His  life  was  noble  ;  wherefore  let  the  day 

White  with  his  memory  shine  beside  the  way  — 

Adding  its  comfort  to  our  human  need  — 

Like  some  fair  tablet  whereon  men  may  read  : 

"  Lo,  here  and  there,  great  witnesses  appear,  — 

The  meek,  the  wise,  the  fearless,  the  sincere  ; 

They  live  their  lives  and  witness  to  the  word  ; 

No  time  so  evil  but  their  voice  is  heard ; 

Nor  sword  nor  flame  can  stop  them  ;  though  they  die 

They  grow  not  silent ;  they  must  cry  their  cry  ; 

Time's  many  a  wave  breaks  dying  on  the  shore  ; 

They  cry  forever  and  forevermore  ; 

For,  in  and  through  such  men  as  these  men  are, 

God  lives  and  works,  and  it  were  easier  far 

To  dry  the  seas  and  roll  the  mountains  flat, 

Than  banish  God  ;  we  build  our  hopes  on  that." 


103 


Address 
THE  INFLUENCE  OF  EDWARDS 

JAMES  ORR,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Theology,  United  Free  Church  College 

Glasgow 


THE  INFLUENCE  OF  EDWARDS 


To  speak  of  Jonathan  Edwards  to  a  company  of 
New  Englanders,  still  more  to  speak  of  him  within 
the  walls  of  an  institution  built  in  a  manner  to 
enshrine  his  memory  and  perpetuate  his  influence, 
is  an  adventurous  task  for  one  whose  home  is  in 
another  continent,  and  whose  religious  associations 
are  different  from  those  by  which  you  are  encircled. 
Yet  there  may  be  a  fitness  in  one  from  another  land 
being  present  at  this  interesting  celebration,  to  bear 
to  you  greeting,  and  to  testify  that  we  in  Scotland 
are  not  unmindful  of  the  mighty  debt  we  owe  to 
New  England  —  which  in  truth  all  Christendom 
owes  —  for  the  gift  of  a  consecrated  genius  of  such 
rare  power  and  enduring  influence  as  his  whom  you 
today  commemorate.  The  name  of  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards is  one  which  entwines  itself  with  the  oldest 
recollections  of  many  of  us.  We  met  with  it  in 
biography,  in  the  literature  of  religion,  in  text-books 
and  prelections  in  philosophy,  in  divinity  systems,  in 
allusions  to  the  influence  of  Edwards  on  the  thought 
and  lives  of  other  men  ;  and,  though  one's  ideas 
were  sometimes  vague  enough  of  the  man  himself 
and  of  his  actual  surroundings  and  struggles  at  a  time 
when,  politically  and  religiously,  everything  in  New 
England  was  yet  in  the  making,  the  impression 
made  upon  us  was  always  one  of  veneration  for  his 
character,    admiration  for  his  extraordinary  genius, 

107 


ORR 

and  awe  at  the  searching  spiritual  power  of  his 
words. 

If  I  may  indulge  in  reminiscence,  it  is  forty  years 
and  more  since  I  first  made  my  own  serious 
acquaintance  with  Edwards  in  poring  over  his 
treatise  on  The  Freedom  of  the  Will  (I  think  it  was 
as  holiday  reading  :  I  have  a  dim  memory  connect- 
ing it  with  a  gooseberry  garden  in  Kilmarnock  ! ), 
and  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  trains  of  thought  then 
set  in  motion  have  continued  to  vibrate  in  my  con- 
scious or  subliminal  self  till  the  present  hour.  It  is 
to  myself  a  singular  satisfaction  to  be  on  the  very 
soil  from  which  he  sprang,  amidst  the  scenes  and 
the  people  among  whom,  generations  ago,  he  lived 
his  laborious  and  devoted  life,  and  to  stand  tonight 
in  this  honourable  gathering,  surrounded  by  me- 
mentos of  his  influence,  where  the  one  object  is  to 
do  him  honour. 

How  could  one  contract  any  other  sentiment 
than  that  of  reverence  for  Jonathan  Edwards,  when 
his  name  was  never  mentioned  by  any  distinguished 
writer  except  with  highest  eulogy  of  his  intellectual 
and  moral  eminence  .''  That  theologians  like  An- 
drew Fuller,  Robert  Hall,  and  Thomas  Chalmers  — 
all  of  whom  acknowledge  their  indebtedness  to  him, 
and  in  all  of  whom  his  influence  is  distinctly  to  be 
traced  —  should  place  him  on  this  high  pedestal  is 
perhaps  not  to  be  wondered  at  ;  but  when  writers 
in  pure  philosophy,  in  no  way  enamoured  of  his 
special  doctrines, — as,  e.  g.,  Sir  James  Mackintosh, 

1 08 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

Dugald  Stewart,  F.  D.  Maurice,  and  even  the  Ger- 
man Fichte,  —  speak  of  his  metaphysical  genius  in 
praise  and  astonishment,  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the 
conviction  that  here  is  a  phenomenon  in  the  history 
of  mind  worth  turning  aside  to  see.  You,  in  your 
own  New  England  theology,  prolonged  through  so 
many  phases,  yet  dominated  throughout  by  the  in- 
fluence of  Edwards,  furnish  a  measure  of  the  range 
and  profundity  of  that  influence  which  suffices  of 
itself  to  show  how  many-sided,  forceful,  and  germ- 
inal it  has  been.  And  in  this  connection,  as  I  have 
named  F.  D.  Maurice,  I  may  be  permitted,  before 
going  further,  to  quote  a  sentence  or  two  of  his, 
which,  coming  from  so  impartial  a  mind,  may  be 
felt  to  be  apposite  to  the  present  occasion  : 

"  In  his  own  country,"  Mr.  Maurice  says,  "  he 
(Edwards)  retains,  and  must  always  retain  a  great 
power.  We  should  imagine  that  all  American 
theology  and  philosophy,  whatever  changes  it  may 
undergo,  and  with  whatever  foreign  elements  it 
may  be  associated,  must  be  cast  in  his  mould.  New 
Englanders  who  try  to  substitute  Berkeley,  or 
Butler,  or  Malebranche,  or  Condillac,  or  Kant,  or 
Hegel,  for  Edwards,  and  to  form  their  minds  upon 
any  of  them,  must  be  forcing  themselves  into  an 
unnatural  position,  and  must  suffer  in  the  effort. 
On  the  contrary,  if  they  accept  the  starting-point  of 
their  native  teacher,  and  seriously  consider  what  is 
necessary  to  make  that  teacher  consistent  with  him- 
self —  what  is  necessary  that  the  divine  foundation 

109 


ORR 

upon  which  he  wished  to  build  may  not  be  too  weak 
and  narrow  for  any  human  or  social  life  to  rest  upon 
it  —  we  should  expect  great  and  fruitful  results 
from  these  inquiries  to  the  land  which  they  care  for 
most,  and  therefore  to  mankind."  {Moral  and 
Metaphysical  Philosophy,   II.  472.) 

I  shall  now,  with  your  permission,  come  to  closer 
quarters,  and  shall  try  to  state  briefly  for  myself 
the  impression  I  have  been  led  to  form  of  this  great 
thinker's  genius  and  influence.  It  is  customary  to 
place  the  supremacy  of  Edwards  in  his  unrivalled 
metaphysical  acuteness  ;  and  even  so  appreciative  a 
critic  as  Henry  Rogers  resolves  his  greatness  almost 
exclusively  into  the  possession,  in  unsurpassed  de- 
gree, of  the  ratiocinative  faculty — of  Reason.  "/« 
this  respect,  at  least,"  he  says,  "he  well  deserves  the 
emphatic  admiration  which  Robert  Hall  expressed 
when  he  somewhat  extravagantly  said  that  Edwards 
was  '  the  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men.'  "  But  this  is 
at  least  one-sided.  I  shall  not  dwell,  as  I  should 
wish  to  do,  on  the  singularly  powerful  influence 
which  Edwards  has  exercised,  in  his  personality  and 
published  writings,  through  the  simple  force  of  his 
pure  and  intense  godliness,  but  shall  content  myself 
with  saying  that  it  will  be  difficult,  in  the  long  list 
of  saints  and  mystics,  to  point  to  one  in  whom  the 
pure  light  of  intellect  was  more  intimately  united 
with  the  pure  glow  of  love  to  God  in  the  heart  — 
with  habitual,  sustained,  all-pervading,  spiritual 
affection.     One  has  only  to  study  the  fragmentary 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

records  of  his  early  resolutions  and  private  exper- 
iences, and  the  parts  of  his  writings  which  deal  with 
experimental  religion,  to  see  how  entirely  in  him  the 
white  light  is  one  with  white  heat.  I  name  the 
state  of  his  soul  godliness  ;  for  while  his  mind  was 
filled,  as  few  have  been,  with  a  realization  of  the 
beauty  and  excellence  of  Christ,  and  with  the  sense 
of  obligation  to  Christ  in  redemption,  it  is  still, 
ultimately,  God's  love  from  which  salvation  is  always 
viewed  as  flowing,  and  to  God,  as  the  supreme  object 
of  affection,  that  everything  in  salvation  is  regarded 
as  leading  back  ;  while  love  to  God,  contemplation 
of  his  excellence,  and  assimilation  to  his  holiness, 
are  the  supreme  elements  in  the  soul's  blessedness. 

The  intellectual  and  spiritual  or  mystical  powers 
in  Edwards,  therefore,  exist  in  inseparable  union, 
and  even  his  speculative  insight —  which  is,  despite 
Mr.  Rogers,  far  more  than  mere  logical  or  ratiocina- 
tive  acuteness  —  cannot  rightly  be  understood,  if 
divorced  from  the  spiritual  perception  from  which  a 
large  part  of  its  light  arises.  There  is  at  the  same 
time  nothing  mystical,  in  the  wrong  sense  of  the 
word,  in  Edwards's  spirituality,  for  it  is  never  cut 
away  from  the  historical  ;  neither  is  there  anything 
about  it  fanatical  and  visionary,  for  it  has  its  root  in 
humility,  is  checked  by  the  most  vigorous  self- 
analysis,  and  is  in  essence  a  pure  aspiration  after 
God  and  holiness.  Listen  only  to  this,  relating  to 
the  years  after  his  conversion  : 

"  My  longings  after  God  and  holiness  were  much 


ORR 

increased.  Pure  and  humble,  holy  and  heavenly, 
Christianity  appeared  exceedingly  amiable  to  me.  I 
felt  a  burning  desire  to  be,  in  everything,  a  complete 
Christian ;  and  conformed  to  the  blessed  image  of 
Christ  ;  and  that  I  might  live  in  all  things,  according 
to  the  pure,  sweet,  and  blessed  rules  of  the  Gospel. 
I  had  an  eager  thirsting  after  progress  in  these 
things  ;  which  put  me  upon  pursuing  and  pressing 
after  them  ....  I  remember  the  thoughts  I  used 
then  to  have  of  holiness ;  and  said  sometimes  to 
myself,  '  I  do  certainly  know  that  I  love  holiness, 
such  as  the  Gospel  prescribes.'  It  appeared  to  me 
there  was  nothing  in  it  but  what  was  ravishingly 
lovely  ;  the  highest  beauty  and  amiableness  —  a 
divine  beauty  ;  far  purer  here  upon  earth  ;  and  that 
everything  else  was  like  mire  and  defilement  in 
comparison  with  it." 

Nature  itself  was  transfigured  to  this  man  of 
spiritual  vision  ;  its  objects  and  glories  became  as  it 
were  a  pure  transparency,  through  which  was  visible 
only  the  Divine  excellency.  Can  anyone  wonder  at 
the  strange  spiritual  fascination  of  such  a  book  as 
that  on  the  Religious  Affections,  coming  from  a  soul 
so  penetrated  with  love  to  God  ?  We  think  of 
Fenelon  and  Madame  Guyon,  but  Edwards's  piety 
burned  with  as  pure  a  flame  as  theirs,  while  it  was 
largely  free  from  the  morbid  and  quietistic  elements 
which  marred  their  sainthood. 

Having,  however,  premised  these  things,  I  am  pre- 
pared to    go   as  far  as  any  —  perhaps  farther  than 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

most  —  in  my  appreciation  of  the  supreme  meta- 
physical faculty  of  Edwards,  and  of  the  influence  he 
has  exercised  on  subsequent  thought  through  that. 
I  have  already  said  that  it  is  not  correct  to  speak  of 
Edwards's  intellectual  superiority  as  consisting 
merely  in  unrivalled  ratiocinative  ability.  Jonathan 
Edwards  has  the  intuitive  gift ;  he  is  a  great  meta- 
physical, not  less  than  a  great  spiritual,  idealist. 
His  nature  instinctively  soars  ;  the  higher  the  tracts 
in  which  his  thought  moves,  the  freer  its  action. 
David  Hume  was  a  precocious  speculator,  but  the 
few  pages  of  notes  and  discussions  on  Mind,  penned 
by  Edwards  under  the  impulse  of  his  first  study  of 
Locke,  in  his  sixteenth  or  seventeenth  year,  seem 
to  me  as  remarkable  in  metaphysical  subtlety  as 
anything  in  Hume,  while,  in  the  spirit  that  informs 
them,  they  are  on  a  far  higher  level.  The  singular 
thing  is  that,  in  keeping  with  what  has  been  said  of 
his  idealistic  bent,  Edwards,  in  these  notes,  and,  so 
far  as  appears,  independently,  works  out  a  theory 
of  idealism  closely  akin  to  Berkeley's,  sustaining  it 
by  arguments,  and  meeting  objections  with  a  skill 
that  must  evoke  the  admiration  of  everyone  familiar 
with  the  subject.  When  one  reflects  that  the 
Berkelean  idealism  is  pretty  much  the />ons  asinorum 
of  the  student  of  philosophy,  getting  safely  over 
which,  he  may  justly  be  credited  with  some  degree 
of  philosophical  vov<i,  it  will  be  felt  that  for  a  youth 
like  Edwards,  thrown  almost  entirely  upon  his  own 
resources,  to  work  out  this  theory  as  he  has  done,  or, 

"3 


ORR 

even  if  chance  had  thrown  some  work  of  Berkeley's 
in  his  way,  (which  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the 
case),  to  appropriate  and  reproduce  its  thoughts  so 
admirably,  was  a  noteworthy  achievement. 

It  is  not,  however,  only  in  his  theory  of  the  ex- 
ternal world,  and  of  God  as  the  cause  of  our  per- 
ceptions, that  Edwards  displays  his  metaphysical 
faculty ;  his  remarks  on  space,  time,  substance, 
cause,  are  equally  acute  and  mature.  There  is,  it  is 
not  too  m.uch  to  say,  as  much  pure  metaphysical 
thinking  packed  up  in  this  score  or  so  of  pages,  as 
would  set  up  many  a  modern  thinker  for  life  ;  and 
had  Edwards  chosen  to  follow  out  this  line,  and  had 
he,  like  Hume,  reduced  his  speculations  to  the  form 
of  a  book,  his  place  in  philosophy  would  perhaps 
have  been  as  high  as  his. 

Edwards,  however,  did  better  than  I  have  sug 
gested  both  for  himself  and  for  us  ;  for  philosophy 
to  him  was  at  no  time  an  end  in  itself,  but  was 
valued  only  as  it  led  back  to,  or  had  relations  with, 
God  and  religion.  The  converse  of  this  is  also  true, 
that  religion,  as  it  moves  back  on  ultimate  questions, 
always  becomes  to  him  again  a  kind  of  philosophy  ; 
is  lifted  up  into  a  region  of  more  or  less  lofty  spec- 
ulation. Here,  in  discussing  such  subjects,  e.  g., 
as  the  last  end  of  God  in  creation,  the  relation  of 
eternity  to  time,  the  ground  of  virtue  in  disin- 
terested love  of  being,  the  freedom  of  the  will, 
Edwards  is  at  his  loftiest  and  best ;  the  language  of 
the  schools  is  dropped,  and  we  move  in  a  region  of 

114 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

pure  abstract  thought.  To  follow  him  in  the  highest 
of  these  flights  needs  the  eye  of  the  eagle  that  is 
not  afraid  to  gaze  on  the  sun. 

The  work  by  which  Edwards  is  best  known  as  a 
metaphysician  throughout  all  lands  is  probably  his 
treatise  on  The  Freedom  of  the  Will.  In  the  mere 
matter  of  this  famous  treatise,  over  which  so  much 
ink  has  been  spilt,  I  do  not  suppose  that  there  is 
much  that  is  absolutely  new.  It  could  easily  be 
shown,  I  think,  that  its  leading  ideas,  and  practically 
all  its  arguments  in  favour  of  philosophical  necessity, 
had  been  anticipated  by  previous  writers.  What 
gives  Edwards's  book  its  classic  distinction  is  not 
its  novelty,  but  the  cool,  dialetical  precision  with 
which  the  argument,  as  a  whole,  is  presented  ;  the 
skill  with  which  point  after  point  is  driven  home  ; 
the  close  concatenation  of  all  its  parts  ;  the  phalanxed 
order  with  which,  from  opening  to  close,  his  reason- 
ing marches  to  its  inevitable  conclusion.  I  do  not 
say  that  Edwards  succeeds  in  satisfying  us,  or  that 
no  flaws  can  be  pointed  out  in  his  argument,  firmly 
riveted  as  it  is.  Will  is  not  simply  prevailing 
desire  ;  nor  is  self-determination  to  be  got  rid  of  by 
conjuring  up  the  supposed  necessity  of  an  infinite 
series  of  self-determining  acts.  I  suppose  everyone 
feels,  when  the  utmost  has  been  said  in  favour  of 
the  necessity  of  volition,  that  there  is  still  an 
irreducible  eletnent  in  consciousness  —  a  something 
that  escapes  logic  —  in  which  yet  the  essence  of 
our  personality  and  moral  freedom  lies.     Still,  if  the 

IIS 


ORR 

question  is  taken  on  the  ground  of  strict  logic  —  if 
it  is  asked,  for  instance,  Is  Will  absolutely  lawless 
in  its  action  ?  Is  there  any  volition  for  which,  if 
we  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  act,  there  is  not  a  why  ? 
Or,  if  such  a  thing  could  be,  would  it  not  be  something 
irrational,  an  act  utterly  unaccountable,  that  could, 
as  Edwards  says,  neither  be  foreknown  by  God  nor 
relied  on  by  man  ?  —  if  questions  like  these  are  put, 
it  is  difficult  indeed  to  refute  Edwards,  or  the 
subtler  forms  of  psychological  and  metaphysical 
determinism  that  have  appeared  since  his  time.  It 
is  at  any  rate  a  curious  fact  that  it  is  the  greater 
metaphysical  minds  that  seem  almost  always  driven 
to  determinism  — -  Locke,  Spinoza,  Leibnitz  ;  Hobbes 
and  Hume,  of  course  ;  Kant  on  the  theoretic  side  ; 
Hegel,  from  the  absolute  point  of  view  ;  Spencer, 
and  with  him  the  greater  number  of  our  scientific 
thinkers.  I  must  not  dare  to  discuss  the  problem 
here  ;  only  Edwards  will  still  be  of  use  to  us  if  he 
warns  us  from  the  danger  of  superficial  conclusions. 
One  thing,  however,  in  Edwards's  presentation, 
which  I  regard  as  seriously  defective,  I  should  like 
to  lay  my  finger  on.  It  is  not  his  own  ;  it  is  bor- 
rowed from  Locke  ;  it  is  in  plainest  conflict  with  his 
own  deepest  philosophy.  All  the  more  need  is 
there  on  that  account  that  it  should  be  pointed  out. 
It  is  the  proposition,  assumed  as  an  axiom,  that 
"the  will  always  is  as  the  greatest  apparent  good 
is,"  that  the  good  is  "  of  the  same  import  with 
[the]   agreeable,"  —  that    "  to    appear    good    to    the 

ii6 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

mind  is  the  same  as  to  appear  agreeable  ; "  —  that 
evil,  on  the  contrary,  is  "  that  which  is  disagreeable 
and  uneasy."  "  Agreeable  "  or  "  pleasing,"  here,  of 
course,  is  agreeable  or  pleasing  to  the  subject  con- 
cerned —  to  the  agent  willing.  Strictly  construed, 
this  would  reduce  ethics  to  eudaemonism,  and  that 
of  a  type  in  which  the  happiness  which  determines 
action  is  always  one's  own  happiness,  not  another's. 
I  need  hardly  say  that  nothing  could  be  further 
from  Edwards's  own  doctrine  of  the  foundation  of 
virtue  in  disinterested  benevolence,  or  from  what  he 
elsewhere  says  of  the  possession  by  the  agent  of  "  a 
moral  faculty,  or  sense  of  good  and  evil  [not  here, 
observe,  meaning  agreeable  or  its  reverse]  .... 
and  a  capacity  which  an  agent  has  of  being  influenced 
in  his  actions  by  moral  inducements  or  motives, 
exhibited  to  the  view  of  understanding  and  reason, 
to  engage  to  a  conduct  agreeable  to  the  moral 
faculty."  Not  that  I  can  accept,  without  qual- 
ification, Edwards's  doctrine  of  the  nature  of  virtue 
—  noble  as  it  is  —  but  the  necessary  qualifications 
he  himself,  I  think  it  could  be  shown,  abundantly 
supplies  in  his  doctrine  of  rectitude,  and  the  obliga- 
tions arising  out  of  fitness  in  the  relations  of  moral 
beings. 

I  hasten  from  philosophy  to  theology,  and  here  so 
vast  a  field  opens  itself  to  view,  that  I  despair  of 
doing  more  than  simply  casting  a  glance  at  a  few  of 
the  greater  streams  of  influence  that  have  issued 
from    this    abounding    source.     One    thing    that    at 

117 


ORR 

once  strikes  the  reader  of  Edwards  in  this  connec- 
tion is  the  immense  distance  the  mind  has  travelled 
within  the  last  two  hundred  years  —  or  let  us  say 
within  the  last  forty  or  fifty  years  —  from  the  theo- 
logical standpoint  which  his  works  represent. 
How  are  we,  it  may  be  asked,  to  enter  with  any 
intelligence  or  sympathy  into  questions  about 
original  sin  and  Adam's  relation  to  his  posterity  — 
we,  who  are  today  discussing  whether  there  ever 
was  an  Adam,  or  have  exchanged  the  Adam  for  our 
scientific  ancestor,  Mr.  Darwin's  "  hairy-tailed  quad- 
ruped, probably  arboreal  in  its  habits,  and  an  inhab- 
itant of  the  ancient  world,"  ;  who,  instead  of  original 
sin,  speak  of  "  our  brute  inheritance ",  which  the 
travail  of  the  ages  has  been  thus  far  unsuccessful  in 
throwing  off  .-•  I  acknowledge  the  contrast  ;  I  know 
that  we  have  outgrown  much  that  belongs  to  the 
fashion  of  a  past  age  in  thought  and  speech,  and  in 
our  modes  of  using  Scripture  ;  but  I  do  not,  there- 
fore, own  that  Jonathan  Edwards  has  become 
obsolete,  or  is  of  no  living  value  to  us  today.  Just 
because  the  thoughts  with  which  his  mind  was  per- 
petually occupied  were  the  highest  and  grandest,  — 
just  because  the  questions  to  which  he  pierced 
down  were  the  basal  ones  of  all  religion,  —  they 
must,  like  the  perennial  stars,  retain  their  interest 
and  fascination  for  us  amidst  all  the  vicissitudes  in 
mundane  opinion.  There  is  a  permanent  element 
in  them  because  they  deal  with  the  eternal. 

It  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  there  never  will 

ii8 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

come  a  time  when  men  cease  to  revolve  the  problem 
of  God's  last  end  in  creation,  or  are  likely  to  find  a 
sublimer  and  more  satisfying  answer  than  that  given 
in  Edwards's  famous  dissertation.  We  have  our 
modern  re-handlings  of  the  doctrine  of  sin,  but  the 
questions  will  recur —  What  is  sin  ?  Is  the  "  brute 
inheritance  "  after  all  an  adequate  explanation  of  it  ? 
How  does  sin  come  to  be  here,  and  what  is  the 
holy  God's  relation  to  it  ?  On  these  subjects  Ed- 
wards will  open  up  to  us  depths,  which,  whether  we 
accept  all  his  own  solutions  or  not,  we  shall  be  forced 
to  confess  that  the  ordinary  evolutionary  text-books 
have  no  line  long  enough  to  fathom.  Our  author 
would  find  no  relief  in  the  idea  that  man  came  into 
existence  in  a  state  in  which  the  animal  propen- 
sities had  almost  undivided  sway  in  his  nature. 
You  don't,  he  would  say,  show  how  man  became 
sinful,  but  you  start  him  off  on  this  hypothesis 
already  sinful.  For  a  moral  being  in  this  turbulent, 
anarchic  state  —  immersed  in  a  life  of  unregulated 
passion  —  is  already  in  a  wrong  moral  state  —  wrong 
for  him.  The  opponent  might  retort  that  if  so,  he 
was  in  a  wrong  moral  state  by  "  an  arbitrary  con- 
stitution of  God,"  and  Edwards  might  have  difficulty 
in  repelling  this  use  of  one  of  his  own  arguments 
against  himself. 

Yet  how  subtle  are  some  of  his  ideas  even  in  this 
obscure  region  }  If  we  get  to  the  inwardness  of  his 
theories,  we  perceive  that  many  of  them  depend 
really  on  his  original  idealistic  premises.     His  theory 

119 


ORR 

of  identity,  e.  g.,  as  consisting  in  a  continual  new 
creation,  —  how  could  it  be  otherwise,  if  substance 
has  no  independent  existence,  and  if  properties  sub- 
sist only  through  the  continual  exertion  of  the 
thought  and  will  of  God  ?  The  exercise-theory  of 
Dr.  Emmons  finds  here,  in  fact,  a  very  logical  justi- 
fication. Or,  again,  that  constituted  identity  of 
Adam  and  his  descendants,  in  virtue  of  which  they 
form  one  great  moral  person  —  how  curiously  does 
idealism  here  turn  round  to  a  species  of  organic 
realism,  the  type  of  which,  in  Edwards's  own  image, 
is  the  tree  and  its  branches  .-•  And  how  curiously 
also  does  physiological  science,  as  represented  say 
by  Weissmann,  with  its  latest  novelty  of  the  dis- 
covery —  or  alleged  discovery  —  of  an  undying 
germ-plasm  in  the  living  species,  give  to  his  theory 
of  a  single  race-life  a  quasi-corroboration  'i 

What  impresses  one  on  the  large  scale  in  Ed- 
wards is  the  exceeding  grandeur,  but  hardly  less 
the  strange  contrasts,  and  often  scarcely  veiled 
antinomies  of  his  thought.  On  the  one  hand,  how 
grand  the  sweep  of  his  thought,  as  it  swings  on  the 
pivot  of  the  divine  sovereignty,  in  the  midst  of  the 
eternities,  between  the  two  great  poles  of  sin  and 
redemption  !  Yet,  on  the  other,  how  difficult  to 
reconcile  this  conception  of  naked  sovereignty  either 
with  his  own  idea  of  freedom,  or  with  his  doctrine 
of  the  supremacy  of  love  in  God's  nature  and 
purpose  !  In  this  doctrine  of  what  Dorner  calls  the 
"  teleological  "  relation  of  love  to  the  other  divine 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

attributes,  Edwards  held  in  his  hands  the  means  of 
correcting  the  harshness  of  the  older  Calvinism, 
without  sacrificing  anything  of  its  truth  ;  but  he 
failed  to  use  it.  The  same  contrast  meets  us  in 
other  respects.  How  strangely  penetrated  the  soul 
of  Edwards  was  by  the  love  of  God,  — how  entirely 
love  was  to  him  the  end  of  creation,  the  essence  of 
virtue,  God's  very  being  ;  yet  how  terrible  his 
view  of  the  divine  justice,  how  awful  his  pictures  of 
sin  and  of  hell !     On  this  a  word  immediately. 

On  the  doctrines  of  applied  redemption  —  justi- 
fication, regeneration,  sanctification, —  there  is  per- 
haps not  much  that  needs  to  be  said  ;  but  on  the 
doctrine  of  atonement,  or  as  Edwards  calls  it, 
"  Christ's  satisfaction  for  sin,"  it  is  not  too  much  to 
say  that,  with  outward  and  entirely  sincere  adher- 
ence to  the  old  formulas,  Edwards  is  a  path-finder, 
and  inaugurates  a  new  period  in  the  treatment  of 
that  doctrine.  I  pass  over  New  England  develop- 
ments, which  are  much  better  known  to  you  than 
they  can  be  to  me,  and  refer  to  the  exceptional 
influence  his  germinal  ideas  have  had  through  one  of 
the  most  original  and  spiritual  thinkers  of  the  Scot- 
tish Church,  Dr.  John  McLeod  Campbell.  Camp- 
bell stands  in  direct  afflliation  to  Edwards.  He 
connects  himself  directly  with  a  suggestion  of  Ed- 
wards that  there  are  conceivably  two  ways  in  which 
satisfaction  for  sin  might  have  been  made  — 
"either,"  as  he  expresses  it,  "an  equivalent  punish- 
ment   or   an    equivalent    sorrow    and   repentance "  ; 


ORR 

and  himself  accepts  the  second  of  these  two  ways 
as  that  in  which  the  atonement  has  been  made 
(a  view  which  Edwards  rejected).  Christ,  he  thinks, 
presented  to  God  on  men's  behalf  "  an  adequate 
sorrow  and  repentance" — a  quite  untenable  con- 
ception. In  reality,  however,  this  formula  does 
not  express  the  central  and  essential  thing  in 
Campbell's  theory,  and  his  view,  when  closely 
scrutinized,  is  found  closely  to  resemble  Edwards's 
own.  The  view  of  Edwards  he  expounds  and  de- 
fends from  objections,  and  in  its  essence  accepts. 

Edwards's  own  statement,  however,  is,  it  seems 
to  me,  the  more  complete,  scriptural,  and  adequate 
of  the  two.  While  granting  that  Christ  passed 
truly  under  the  judgment  of  God  in  enduring  the 
death  threatened  against  sin,  he  yet  lays  the  whole 
stress,  in  explaining  the  atoning  virtue  of  these 
sufferings,  on  the  moral  and  spiritual  elements  con- 
tained in  them,  and  so  in  effect  transforms  the 
doctrine  of  atonement  from  within.  Christ  is  the 
divine  and  human  mediator,  who,  standing  between 
God  and  man,  is  able  perfectly  to  enter  into  the 
mind  of  both,  and  to  identify  himself  with  both  with 
perfect  sympathy.  On  the  one  hand,  he  has  a  full 
apprehension  of  the  sin  of  man,  and  of  its  evil 
desert ;  on  the  other,  he  enters  fully  into  the  mind 
of  God  regarding  sin,  and  into  the  realization  of  the 
wrath  which  is  its  due.  He  thus  truly,  yet  inwardly 
and  not  merely  by  legal  imputation,  bore  our  sins, 
rendering    through  his  inward  acknowledgement  of 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

the  justice  of  God  in  the  condemnation  of  sin  a 
tribute  to  the  divine  righteousness,  which  makes 
reparation  for  the  guilt  humanity  has  incurred. 
McLeod  Campbell,  in  his  expressive  way,  speaks  of 
this  as  the  "  Amen "  which  went  up  from  the 
humanity  of  Jesus  in  response  to  the  divine  mind 
about  sin,  in  which  lay  the  essence  of  atonement. 
I  myself  think  that  in  these  utterances  of  Edwards 
and  Campbell  we  possibly  touch  the  deepest  mean- 
ing of  the  Cross  in  its  expiatory  and  propitiatory 
aspect. 

The  admiration  I  have  expressed  for  the  genius 
and  character  of  Edwards  is  not  to  be  construed  as 
if  I  were  insensible  of  the  limitations  that  inhere  in 
the  piety  and  thought  of  this  truly  great  and  saintly 
man.  I  refer  only  to  two  points  in  closing  in  which 
I  think  such  limitation  must  be  frankly  acknowl- 
edged. With  all  his  "  inward,  sweet  delight  in  God 
and  in  divine  things,"  one  cannot  help  feeling  at 
times  a  certain  strain  in  the  piety  of  Edwards,  as  if 
he  were  bent  on  disciplining  himself  to  live  at  a 
height  of  religious  emotion  which  it  does  not  lie  in 
the  weakness  of  human  nature  to  sustain.  There 
is  a  tension  as  of  the  over-bent  bow  in  much  of  his 
experience,  resulting,  as  his  Diary  faithfully  shows, 
in  painful  fluctuations  of  feeling  —  alternations  of 
periods  of  rapture  with  seasons  of  depression  — 
begetting  in  himself  the  suspicion,  as  he  says,  that 
"  too  constant  a  mortification,  and  too  vigorous  an 
application  to  religion,  may  be  prejudicial  to  health." 

123 


ORR 

He  puts  himself  under  severe  regimen  ;  talks  often 
of  the  need  of  "  forcing "  himself  upon  religious 
thoughts  ;  drills  himself  with  maxims  in  a  way  that 
reminds  one  of  Marcus  Aurelius  ;  intends,  at  one 
point,  to  "  live  in  a  continual  mortification,"  though 
his  good  sense  led  him  afterwards  to  think  better  of 
it.  This  strained,  introspective  mood  is  not  healthy, 
though  it  was  characteristic  of  a  good  deal  of  the 
piety  of  the  period,  and  of  the  times  of  "  attention 
to  religion,"  as  revival-seasons  were  named. 

Connected  with  this  is  the  second  limitation  I 
would  notice  in  Edwards.  The  intensity  of  his  nature 
on  the  side  of  religion  —  absorbing,  dwarfing  all 
other  interests  —  was  not  without  an  effect  in  limit- 
ing the  range  of  his  human  sympathies.  There  is  a 
lack  of  the  humanist  element  in  him  ;  a  defect  in  the 
appreciation  of  art,  literature  and  culture,  which 
was  bound  again  to  provoke,  and  did  provoke  a 
reaction.  There  is  a  lack  also  of  full  sympathy 
with  human  nature  in  the  individual.  The  terrible 
intensity  of  his  sense  of  the  sovereignty  of  God,  of 
the  awfulness  of  sin,  of  the  utter  ruin  wrought  by 
sin  —  even  with  all  that  existed  to  balance  it  in  his 
views  of  the  love  of  God,  and  of  the  beauty  and 
excellency  of  God  and  Christ — threw  other  truths 
out  of  proportion.  There  is  a  pitilessness  sometimes 
in  his  delineations  of  the  divine  justice  which  amazes 
us.  I  suppose  there  are  few  more  terrible  pages  in 
literature  than  those  of  some  of  Jonathan  Edwards's 
sermons  on  the  punishment  of  the  lost.     But  let  us  do 

124 


THE    INFLUENCE    OF    EDWARDS 

justice  to  our  author  even  here.  I  do  not  know  what 
the  judgment  of  anyone  of  us  would  be  on  sin,  or  on 
ourselves  as  sinners,  if  we  realized  as  we  should  do, 
or  as  it  was  given  to  him  to  do,  the  holiness  of  God. 
To  him  it  was  all  most  real.  If  we  want  to  see  how 
far  it  is  possible  for  one  to  go  in  judgment  of  the 
damnableness  of  sin,  who  sees  it  in  that  light,  we 
may  recall  Dante,  who  surpasses  even  Edwards  in 
his  lurid  realism  and  intensity. 

We  dare  not  dismiss  this  as  pure  mediaevalism. 
The  fact  that  Dante's  Inferno  has  for  many  today 
all  the  fascination  of  a  great  classic,  embodying 
lessons  of  eternal  import,  is  a  proof  that  his  hell 
is  not  altogether  an  arbitrary,  barbarous,  and  ex- 
ploded conception.  Still  in  Dante's  pictures  of  the 
circles  there  is  a  touch  of  sympathy  —  a  sense  of 
gradations  —  which  there  is  not  in  Edwards.  One 
asks  in  vain  where  the  "few  stripes"  and  "many 
stripes  "  come  in  with  him.  But  neither  Dante  nor 
Edwards  in  their  representations  of  the  future  can 
be  held  to  do  justice  to  the  possibilities  of  grace  in 
the  Gospel.  Not  nature  only,  but  grace,  rises  in 
rebellion  in  us  at  these  merciless  descriptions,  and 
says  — "There  must  be  something  more,  something 
else,"  though  it  may  not  be  possible  to  tell  precisely 
what  it  is,  and  though  many,  in  attempting  to  define 
it,  have  been  wise  above  what  is  written.  If  these 
descriptions  by  either  Dante  or  Edwards  could  be 
presumed  to  be  the  last  words   on    the    subject,    I 


125 


ORR 

think    we    should    have   to    go  back  to  Dr.  Walter 
Smith's  picture  in  his  poem  on  "  The  Self-Exiled," 

"  The  meek  soul  that  for  love  heeds  not  what  sorrow  befalls  it, 
Heeds  not  the  bliss  and  the  glory,  but  longs  for  them  that  are 

lying 
Dim  in  the  outer  darkness,  tossed  in  the  anguish  undying" 

and    which,  amidst    angelic  silence,  pleads  for  per- 
mission 

"  To  go  away, 

And  help,  if  I  yet  may  help,  the  dead 

That  have  no  day." 

I  do  not  think  however  that  we  are  shut  up  to  this 
conclusion  either. 

I  should  like  in  closing  to  recall  that  Scotland  also 
may  claim  its  little  share  of  influence  on  the  in- 
fluence of  Edwards.  Probably  nothing  in  the  course 
of  his  own  life  ever  impressed  Jonathan  Edwards 
more  deeply  than  his  brief  association  with  David 
Brainerd.  It  is  worth  remembering  therefore  that 
when  Brainerd  went  to  the  Indians,  it  was  as  a 
missionary  of  the  Society  in  Scotland  for  Propagat- 
ing Christian  Knowledge.  Further,  it  was  through 
his  Life  of  Brainerd  that  Edwards  produced  some 
of  his  deepest  impressions  on  individual  minds.  It 
is  said  that  the  reading  of  the  work  had  a  potent 
influence  on  the  mind  of  Carey,  of  Henry  Martyn, 
and  of  the  saintly  McCheyne  in  Scotland.  If  so, 
in  the  last  case,  Edwards  was  but  giving  back  to 
Scotland  what  was  in  part  given  by  it. 


126 


APPENDICES 


APPENDIX  I. 


INTRODUCTORY. 


Edwards  began  in  his  college  days,  apparently,  four 
series  of  papers.  The  first  he  entitles,  "  The  Natural 
History  of  the  Mental  World,  or  of  the  Internal  World  : 
being  a  Particular  Enquiry  into  the  Nature  of  the  Human 
Mind,  with  respect  to  both  its  Faculties  —  the  Under- 
standing and  the  Will,  —  and  its  various  Instincts,  and 
Active  and  Passive  Powers."  A  briefer  title  is  "  The 
Mind."  The  second  series  is  referred  to  by  its  author  as 
"  Natural  Philosophy,"  and  as  dealing  with  the  "  External 
W^orld."  Dr.  Dwight  designates  it  "  Notes  on  Science." 
The  third,  Edwards  calls  "  Miscellanies,"  The  fourth  he 
often  refers  to  as  containing  a  "  Note  "  on  this  or  that 
passage  of  Scripture.  Most  of  this  collection  was  pub- 
lished by  Dr.  Dwight  under  the  title  "  Notes  on  the 
Bible."  "The  Mind"  and  the  "Natural  Philosophy" 
are  to  be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  the  first  volume  of 
Dwight's  edition  of  Edwards's  "  Works."  The  autographs 
of  the  papers  on  the  "  External  World,"  are  in  my  pos- 
session ;  those  on  the  "  Mental  World  "  have  strangely 
disappeared.  The  originals  of  the  "  Miscellanies  "  and 
the  Scriptural  "  Notes  "  are  deposited  in  the  Library  of 
Yale  University,  and  I  am  much  indebted  to  Professor 
Franklin  Bowditch  Dexter,  for  opportunities  and  kind 
assistance  in  the  examination  of  these  and  other  auto- 
graphs, of  which  he  has  given  an  interesting  account  in  a 
communication  published  in  the  "  Proceedings  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  March,  1901."  The 
remarks  on  topics  in  Natural  and  Mental  Philosophy 
seem  to  have  been  discontinued  after  their  author  was 
ordained,  early  in  1727,  as  a  minister  of  the  Gospel  in 


APPENDIX    I. 

Northampton.  His  first  biographer,  however,  a  pupil 
and  intimate  friend,  testifies  not  only  that  he  "  had  an 
uncommon  taste  for  Natural  Philosophy,"  but  that  he 
"cultivated  "  it  "  to  the  end  of  his  life,  with  that  justness 
and  accuracy  of  thought  which  was  almost  peculiar  to 
him."  I  have  noticed  in  the  rich  collection  at  New 
Haven,  a  loose  sheet,  on  which  characteristic  questions 
relating  to  both  scientific  and  philosophical  problems 
are  noted  in  a  hand-writing  which  suggests  maturity. 
Yet  it  remains  true  that  the  only  series  which  were 
continuously  prosecuted  through  his  life  were  those  which 
dealt  with  Biblical  and  theological  themes.  The  num- 
ber of  topics  entered  in  the  "  Miscellanies  "  increased 
to  1408.  They  are  contained,  says  Professor  Dexter, 
"  in  eight  folio  or  quarto  volumes,  aggregating  over 
1,400  minutely  written  pages."  From  this  repository 
of  his  thoughts  were  drawn  the  contents  of  two  volumes 
published  in  Edinburgh  from  copies  supplied  by  the 
younger  President  Edwards,  and  a  third  collection  was 
added  to  these  by  Dr.  Dwight,  and  is  to  be  found  in 
the  eighth  volume  of  his  edition  of  the  "  Works."  Pro- 
fessor Dexter  says  that  what  has  thus  been  used  is  "  only 
a  fragment  of  the  whole  amount."  Of  numbers  in  this 
collection,  not  included  in  any  edition  of  Edwards's 
"  Works,"  I  have  copies  written  by  an  amanuensis  em- 
ployed by  Dr.  Sereno  E.  Dwight,  and  revised  by  him. 
These,  together  with  others  made  for  the  son,  Dr.  Jona- 
than Edwards,  amount  to  more  than  1700  full  pages, 
allowing  ten  and  one-half  inches  by  eight  and  one-half 
inches  for  each  page.  The  hand-writing  of  Dr.  Dwight's 
scribe  is  large,  and  plain  as  print,  so  that  by  these  tran- 
scripts the  study  is  greatly  facilitated  of  a  collection  of 
which  Professor  Dexter  remarks  :  "  No  representation  of 
Edwards  as  a  thinker  is  quite  complete    so    long    as   so 


APPENDIX    I. 

many  of  these  '  Miscellanies '  are  still  in  manuscript." 
Perhaps  some  misunderstandings  of  his  theology,  or 
apologetic  suggestions  which  appear  to  have  somewhat 
misled,  would  not  have  appeared,  had  the  perusal  of 
these  papers  not  been  so  peculiarly  difficult. 

They  are  far  from  being  all  of  special  interest  or  value. 
Some  are  mere  references  to  authors,  or  to  Edwards's 
own  Notes  on  passages  of  Scriptures.  Others  are  brief 
remarks  or  conclusions.  Only  a  minor  part  are  extended 
discussions.  A  fair  idea  of  their  varying  length  may  be 
gained  from  the  "  Notes  on  the  Bible  "  published  by  Dr. 
Dwight,  who  gives  the  number  of  each  selection  which  he 
uses. 

It  should  be  added,  that  the  descriptive  phrases 
"  Note-book,"  "  Common-place  book,"  often  applied  to 
the  "  Miscellanies,"  though  not,  as  already  implied, 
wholly  erroneous,  may  easily  mislead.  Especially  inap- 
plicable is  the  word  "  tentative."  The  Observations 
make  a  strong  impression  of  being  the  results  of  pro- 
tracted thought  that  had  reached  careful  conclusions  and 
results  which  they  were  intended  to  preserve.  Progress 
in  reflection  is  observable.  The  earlier  papers  should  be 
compared  with  later  ones  on  the  same  themes.  Justice 
to  their  author  requires  that  they  be  regarded  as  written 
primarily  for  his  own  eye,  and  as  helps  in  the  prosecution 
of  his  ever  unwearied  efforts  in  the  attainment  and  main- 
tenance of  truth.  But  "  tentative  "  they  are  not,  in  the 
sense  of  something  merely  set  down  for  further  consider- 
ation, and  with  a  reserve  of  more  or  less  doubt  as  to  its 
validity.  Samuel  Hopkins,  the  younger  Edwards,  and  Dr. 
Dwight,  as  already  noticed,  have  drawn  freely  from  these 
"  Miscellanies ;  "  and  we  have  their  author's  own  testi- 
mony as  to  their  relation  to  his  opinions  and  judgments, 
as  will  bCjevident  by  the  following  extract  from  his  letter 


APPENDIX    I. 

to  the  Trustees  of  Nassau  Hall,  who  had  chosen  him  to 
its  presidency  :  "  My  method  of  study,  from  my  first 
beginning  the  work  of  the  ministry,  has  been  very  much 
by  writing;  applying  myself,  in  this  way,  to  improve  every 
important  hint ;  pursuing  the  clue  to  my  utmost,  when 
anything  in  reading,  meditation,  or  conversation,  has  been 
suggested  to  my  mind,  that  seemed  to  promise  light,  in 
any  weighty  point ;  thus  penning  what  appeared  to  me 
my  best  thoughts,  on  innumerable  subjects,  for  my  own 
benefit."  ^  "  Best  thoughts  "  would  be  a  not  inapt  de- 
scription of  the  contents  of  the  "  Miscellanies "  as  a 
whole. 

The  quotations  included  in  this  Appendix  relate  to 
remarks  made  in  the  Address  on  the  *'  Theology  of 
Jonathan  Edwards,"  ^  and  are  intended  to  illustrate  and 
justify  them.  They  show  the  life-long  presence  in 
Edwards's  mind  of  the  thoughts  expressed,  and  also, 
so  far  as  this  occurred,  their  growth.  I  wish  particularly 
to  remove  a  suspicion  which  recently  has  gained  more  or 
less  currency,  —  (reversing  rather  curiously  a  former  sup- 
position) —  that  Edwards's  interest  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
Trinity  was  of  late  origin,  and  that  it  arose,  in  part  at 
least,  from  a  distrust  in  his  mind  of  the  validity  of  his 
own  theological  system.  In  the  selections  from  the  Obser- 
vations on  the  "  End  of  God  in  the  Creation  "  I  desire 
especially  to  indicate  what  a  complete  and  beautiful 
unity  is  disclosed  between  his  highest  and  long  cherished 
thought  of  God,  and  his  conoeption  of  the  Divine  Purpose 
in  Creation,  a  view  essentially  different,  I  may  add, 
from  either  a  deistic  or  a  pantheistic  interpretation  of  the 
universe.  E.  C.  S. 

■Dwiglu's  Life  [Works,  Vol.  I.  p.  569]. 
2  See  above,  p.  73. 


APPENDIX    I. 


THE    TRINITY. 


Before  proceeding  with  citations  from  the  "  Miscella- 
nies," I  will  introduce  a  few  sentences  from  the  first  and 
forty  fifth  numbers  on  ''  The  Mind,"  since  these  papers 
are  not  published  in  the  edition  of  Edwards's  Works  in 
common  use.  No.  i  was  probably  written  before  he 
began  his  "  Miscellanies,"  and  No.  45  is  earlier  apparently 
than  anything  on  the  Trinity  in  the  theological  series. 

"  I.  Excellency.  This  is  an  universal  definition  of 
Excellency :  The  Cotisent  of  Being  to  Beings  or  Being's 
Consent  to  Entity One  alone,  without  any  refer- 
ence to  any  more,  cannot  be  excellent,  for  in  such  case 
there  can  be  no  manner  of  relation  no  way,  and  therefore 
no  such  thing  as  consent.  Indeed,  what  we  call  One  may 
be  excellent  because  of  a  consent  of  parts,  or  some  con- 
sent of  those  in  that  being  that  are  distinguished  into  a 
plurality  some  way  or  other.  But  in  a  being  that  is  abso- 
lutely without  any  plurality,  there  cannot  be  Excellency, 
for  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  consent  or  agreement." 

"  45.  Excellence.  When  we  spake  of  Excellence  in 
Bodies  we  were  obliged  to  borrow  the  word.  Consent, 
from  Spiritual  things ;  but  Excellence  in  and  among 
Spirits  is  in  its  prime  and  proper  sense,  Being's  consent 
to  Being.  There  is  no  other  proper  consent  but  that  of 
Minds,  even  of  their  Will ;  which,  when  it  is  of  Minds 
towards  Minds,  it  is  Love^  and  when  of  Minds  towards 
other  things  it  is  Choice.  Wherefore  all  the  Primary  and 
Original  beauty  or  excellence  that  is  among  Minds  is 
Love  ;  and  into  this  may  all  be  resolved  that   is   found 

among   them His  [God's]  Infinite  Beauty  is  His 

Infinite  mutual  Love  of  Himself  ....  the  mutual  love 
of  the  Father  and  the  Son.  This  makes  the  Third,  the 
Personal  Holy  Spirit,  or  the  Holiness  of  God,  which  is 

7 


APPENDIX    I. 

his  Infinite  Beauty 'Tis  peculiar  to  God,  that  he 

has  beauty  within  himself,  consisting  in  Being's  consent- 
ing with  his  own  Being,  or  the  love  of  himself,  in  his  own 

Holy    Spirit We    shall   be    in    danger,   when    we 

meditate  on  this  love  of  God  to  himself  as  being  the 
thing  wherein  his  infinite  excellence  and  loveliness  con- 
sists, of  some  alloy  to  the  sweetness  of  our  view,  by  its 
appearing  with  something  of  the  aspect  and  cast  of  what 
we  call  self-love.  But  we  are  to  consider  that  this  love 
includes  in  it,  or  rather  is  the  same  as,  a  love  to  every- 
thing, as  they  are  all  communications  of  himself.  So 
that  we  are  to  conceive  of  Divine  Excellence  as  the 
Infinite  General  Love,  that  which  reaches  all  proportion- 
ally with  perfect  purity  and  sweetness  ;  yea,  it  includes 
the  true  Love  of  all  creatures,  for  that  is  his  Spirit,  or 
which  is  the  same  thing,  his  Love." 

The  following  citations  are  all  from  the  "Miscellanies." 
They  are  taken  from  the  collections  of  copies  prepared 
for  Dr.  Dwight  in  connection  with  his  edition  of 
Edwards's  works.  They  have  been  carefully  compared 
with  the  originals,  and  in  spelling  and  capitalization  more 
closely  conformed  to  those. 

"  94.^  Trinity.  There  has  been  much  cry  of  late 
against  saying  one  word  particularly  about  the  Trinity, 
but  what  the  Scripture  has  said,  judging  it  impossible 
but  that,  if  we  did,  we  should  err  in  a  thing  so  much 
above  us.  But  if  they  call  that,  which  necessarily  results 
from  the  putting  of  reason  and  Scripture  [together] 
though  it  has  not  been  said  in  Scripture  in  express  words, 
I  say  if  they  call  this  what  is  not  said  in  the  Scriptures,  I 
am   not   afraid   to    say  twenty  things  about  the  Trinity, 

'  Forty-eight  should  be  added  to  each  number  cited  from  the  "  Miscel- 
lanies," as  before  explained.  Dr.  Dwight  supposes  that  150  of  the 
Observations  were  written  during  Edwards's  college  days  and  the  two 
years  following  his  graduation. 

8 


APPENDIX    I. 

which  the  Scriptures  never  said.  There  may  be  deduc- 
tions of  reason  from  wliat  has  been  said  of  the  most 
mysterious  matters,  besides  what  has  been  said,  and  safe 
and  certain  deductions  too,  as  well  as  about  the  most 
obvious  and  easy  matters. 

I  think  that  it  is  within  the  reach  of  naked  reason  to 
perceive  certainly  that  there  are  thus,  distinct,  in  God, 
each  of  which  is  the  same,  three  that  must  be  distinct, 
and  that  there  are  not,  nor  can  be  any  more,  distinct, 
Really  and  truly  distinct,  but  three,  either  distinct  persons 
or  properties,  or  anything  else ;  and  that,  of  these  three 
one  is  (more  properly  than  any  thing  else)  begotten  of 
the  other,  and  that  the  other  Proceeds  alike  from  both, 
and  that  the  first  neither  is  begotten  nor  proceeds.  It  is 
often  said  that  God  is  infinitely  happy  from  all  eternit}'^, 
in  the  view  and  enjoyment  of  himself,  in  the  reflection 
and  inverse  love  of  his  own  essence  that  is  in  the  in- 
finitely perfect  idea  he  has  of  himself  infinitely  perfect. 
The  Almighty's  knowledge  is  not  so  different  from  ours, 
but  that  ours  is  the  image  of  it ;  is  by  an  idea  as  ours 
is  only  'tis  infinitely  Perfect ;  if  it  were  not  by  idea  it  is 
in  no  respect  like  ours  :  'tis  not  what  we  call  knowledge, 
nor  anything  whereof  knowledge  is  the  resemblance  ;  for 
the  whole  of  human  knowledge,  both  in  the  beginning 
and  end  of  it,  consists  in  ideas.  'Tis  also  said  that  God's 
knowledge  of  himself  includes  the  knowledge  of  all  things, 
and  that  he  knows,  and  from  eternity  knew,  all  things,  by 
the  looking  on  himself,  and  by  the  idea  of  himself,  be- 
cause he  is  virtually  all  things:  so  that  all  God's  knowl- 
edge is  the  idea  of  himself.  But  yet  it  would  suppose 
imperfection  in  God,  to  suppose  that  God's  idea  of  him- 
self is  anything  different  from  himself.  None  will  sup- 
pose that  God  has  any  such  ideas  as  we,  that  are  only  as 
it  were  the  shadow  of  things,  and  not  the  very  things. 


APPENDIX    I. 

We  cannot  suppose  that  God  reflects  on  himself  after  the 
imperfect  manner  we  reflect  on  things,  for  we  can  view 
nothing  immediately.  The  immediate  object  of  the 
mind's  intuition  is  the  idea  alwaies  and  the  soul  receives 
nothing  but  ideas.  But  God's  intuition  on  himself  with- 
out doubt  is  immediate.  But  'tis  certain  it  cannot  be 
except  his  idea  be  his  essence,  for  his  idea  is  the  imme- 
diate object  of  his  intuition.  An  absolutely  perfect  idea 
of  a  thing,  is  the  very  thing,  for  it  wants  nothing  that  is 
in  the  thing  ;  substance,  nor  nothing  else.  That  is  the 
notion  of  the  perfection  of  an  idea,  to  want  nothing  that 
is  in  [shorthand].  Whatsoever  is  perfectly  and  abso- 
lutely like  a  thing,  is  that  thing;  but  God's  idea  is 
absolutely  perfect.  I  will  form  my  reasoning  thus  :  If 
nothing  has  any  existence  any  way  at  all  but  in  some 
consciousness  or  idea  or  other,  and  therefore  that  things, 
that  are  in  us  created  consciousness,  have  no  existence 
but  in  the  divine  idea^  ....  Supposing  the  things  in 
this  room  were  in  the  idea  of  none  but  of  God,  they 
would  have  existence  no  other  way ;  and  if  the  things  in 
this  Room  would  nevertheless  be  Real  things ;  then  God's 
idea,  being  a  perfect  idea,  is  Really  the  thing  itself ;  and 
if  so,  and  all  God's  ideas  are  only  the  one  idea  of  himself, 
as  has  been  shewn,  [then  God's  idea]  must  be  his 
Essence  itself,  it  must  be  a  substantial  idea,  having  all 
the  perfection  of  the  substance  perfectly ;  so  that  by 
God's  reflecting  on  himself  the  Deity  is  begotten  :  there 
is  a  substantial  image  of  God  begotten,  I  am  satisfied 
that  though  this  word  begotten  had  never  been  used  in 
Scripture,  it  would  have  been  used  in  this  case  ;  there  is 
no  other  word  that  so  properly  expresses  it.  It  is  this 
perfection   of   God's    idea    that    makes   all    things   truly 

'  After  the  word  "idea"  Edwards  wrote  "as  we  have  shown  in  Phil- 
osophy our  natural  L  ?  ]  Philosophy,"  and  drew  a  line  through  these  words. 


APPENDIX    I, 

and  Properly  present  to  him  from  all  eternity ;  and 
is  the  reason  why  God  has  no  succession.  For  every 
thing  that  is,  has  been,  or  shall  be,  having  been  per- 
fectly in  God's  idea  from  all  eternity  ;  and  a  perfect 
Idea  (which  yet  no  finite  being  can  have  of  anything) 
being  the  very  thing ;  therfore  all  things  from  eternity 
were  equally  Present  with  God,  and  there  is  no  alteration 
made  in  idea  by  presence  and  absence,  as  there  is  in  us. 

Again  :  That  which  is  the  express  and  perfect  image 
of  God,  is  God's  idea  of  his  own  essence.  There  is 
nothing  else  can  be  an  express,  and  fully  perfect  image  of 
God  but  God's  idea.  Ideas  are  images  of  things  and 
there  are  no  other  images  of  things,  in  the  most  proper 
sense,  but  ideas ;  because  other  things  are  only  called 
images,  as  they  beget  an  idea  in  us  of  the  thing  of  which 
they  are  the  image  ;  so  that  all  other  images  of  things  are 
but  images  in  a  secondary  sense.  But  we  know  that  the 
Son  of  God  is  the  Express  and  Perfect  image  of  God,  and 
his  image  in  the  primary  and  most  proper  sense  :  II.  Cor. 
iv.  4  ;  Philip,  ii.  6  ;  Coloss.  i.  15  ;  Heb.  i.  3. 

Again  :  That  Image  of  God  which  God  infinitely  loves, 
and  has  his  chief  delight  in,  is  the  Perfect  idea  of  God. 
It  has  always  been  said  that  God's  infinite  delight  con- 
sists in  reflecting  on  himself  and  viewing  his  own  perfec- 
tions ;  or,  which  is  the  same  thing,  in  his  own  perfect 
idea  of  himself;  so  that  'tis  acknowledged  that  God's 
infinite  love  is  to,  and  his  infinite  delight  in,  the  perfect 
image  of  himself.  But  the  Scriptures  tell  us  that  the  Son 
of  God  is  that  Image  of  God  which  he  infinitely  loves. 
Nobody  will  deny  this,  that  God  infinitely  loves  his  Son, 
John  iii.  35  ;  v.  20.  So  it  was  declared  from  heaven  by 
the  Father  at  his  baptism  and  transfiguration,  "  This  is 
my  beloved  Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  pleased."  So  the 
Father  calls  him  his  Elect  in  whom  his  soul  delighteth, 


APPENDIX    I. 

Isai.  xlii.  i.  He  is  called  "the  Beloved,"  Ephes.  i.  6. 
The  Son  also  declared  that  the  Father's  infinite  happiness 
consisted  in  the  enjoyment  of  him,  Prov.  viii.  30.  Now 
none  I  suppose  will  say  that  God  enjoys  infinite  happiness 
in  two  manners  :  one  in  the  infinite  delight  he  has  in 
enjoying  his  Son,  his  Image  ;  and  another  in  the  view  of 
himself  different  from  this.  If  not,  then  these  ways, 
wherein  God  enjoys  infinite  happiness,  are  both  the 
same  ;  that  is,  his  infinite  delight  in  the  idea  of  himself  is 
the  same  with  the  infinite  delight  he  has  in  his  son  :  and 
if  so,  his  Son  and  the  idea  he  has  of  himself  are  the  same. 

Again  :  That,  which  is  the  Express  Image  of  God,  in 
which  God  enjoys  infinite  happiness,  and  is  also  the 
Word  of  God,  is  God's  perfect  idea  of  God.  The  Word 
of  God,  in  its  most  proper  meaning,  is  a  transcript  of  the 
divine  perfections  :  this  Word  is  either  his  declared  word 
of  God  or  the  essential  [Word].  The  one  is  the  copy  of 
the  divine  perfections  given  to  us  ;  the  other  is  the  per- 
fect transcript  thereof  in  God's  own  mind.  But  the 
perfect  transcript  of  the  perfections  of  God  in  the  divine 
[mind]  is  the  same  with  God's  perfect  idea  of  his  own 
perfections.  But  I  need  tell  none  how  the  Son  of  God  is 
called  the  Word  of  God. 

Nextly :  That  which  is  the  Express  Image  of  God,  in 
which  is  his  infinite  delight,  which  is  his  Word,  and 
which  is  the  Reason,  or  Wisdom  of  God,  is  God's  perfect 
Idea  of  God.  That  God's  knowledge,  or  reason,  or 
wisdom,  is  the  same  with  God's  idea,  none  will  deny  ;  and 
that  all  God's  knowledge  or  wisdom  consists  in  the 
knowledge,  or  perfect  idea,  of  himself,  is  shewn  before, 
and  granted  by  all ;  but  none  need  to  be  told  that  the 
Son  of  God  is  often  called  in  Scripture  by  the  names  of 
the  Wisdom  and  Logos  of  God.  Wherefore  God  him- 
self has  put  the  matter  beyond  all  debate  whether  or  no 


APPENDIX    I. 

his  Son  is  not  the  same  with  his  Idea  of  himself  ;  for  it  is 
most  certain  that  his  wisdom  and  knowledge  is  the  very 
same  with  his  idea  of  himself.  How  much  does  the  Son 
of  God  speak  in  Proverbs  under  the  name  of  Wisdom  ! 

There  is  very  much  of  image  of  this  in  ourselves.  Man 
is  as  if  he  were  two,  as  some  of  the  great  wits  of  this  age 
have  observed  ;  a  sort  of  genius  is  with  man,  that  accom- 
panies him  and  attends  wherever  he  goes,  so  that  a  man 
has  a  conversation  with  himself,  that  is,  he  has  a  conver- 
sation with  his  own  idea  ;  so  that,  if  his  idea  be  excellent, 
he  will  take  great  delight  and  happiness  in  conferring 
and  communicating  with  it :  he  takes  complacency  in 
himself,  he  applauds  himself ;  and  wicked  men  accuse 
them  and  fight  with  themselves,  as  if  they  were  two  ;  and 
man  is  truly  happy  then,  and  only  then,  when  these  two 
agree,  and  they  delight  in  themselves,  and  in  their  own 
idea,  their  image,  as  God  delights  in  his. 

The  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Act  of  God,  between  the  Father 
and  the  Son  infinitely  loving  and  delighting  in  each  other. 
Sure  I  am  that,  if  the  Father  and  the  Son  do  infinitely 
delight  in  each  other,  there  must  be  an  infinitely  pure 
and  perfect  Act  between  them,  an  infinitely  sweet  energy, 
which  we  call  delight :  This  is  certainly  distinct  from 
the  other  two.  The  delight  and  energy  that  is  begotten 
in  us  by  an  idea,  is  distinct  from  the  idea ;  so  it  cannot 
be  confounded  in  God ;  either  with  God  begetting  or 
with  his  idea  and  image,  or  Son.  It  is  distinct  from  each 
of  the  other  two  ;  and  yet  it  is  God  :  for  the  pure  and 
perfect  Act  of  God  is  God,  because  God  is  a  pure  Act. 
It  appears  that  this  is  God,  because  that  which  acts  per- 
fectly, is  all  act,  and  nothing  but  act.  There  is  image  of 
this  in  created  beings  that  approach  to  perfect  action  ; 
how  frequently  do  we  say  that  the  saints  of  heaven  are 
all    transformed   into   love,    dissolved    into   joy,    become 

13 


APPENDIX    I. 

activity  itself,  changed  into  pure  extasy.  I  acknowledge 
these  are  metaphorical  in  this  case ;  but  yet  it  is  true 
that  the  more  perfect  the  act  is,  the  more  it  resembles  the 
infinitely  perfect  act  of  God  in  this  respect.  And  I 
believe  it  will  be  plain  to  one  that  thinks  intensely,  that 
the  perfect  act  of  God  must  be  a  substantial  act.  We 
say  that  the  perfect  delights  of  reasonable  creatures  are 
substantial  delights  ;  but  the  delight  of  God  is  properly  a 
substance,  yea,  an  infinitely  perfect  substance,  even  the 
essence  of  God.  It  appears,  by  the  holy  Scriptures, 
that  the  holy  Spirit  is  the  perfect  act  of  God.  The  name 
declares  it,  the  Spirit  of  God  denotes  to  us  the  activity, 
vivacity,  and  energy  of  God  ;  and  it  appears  that  the 
holy  Spirit  is  the  pure  act  of  God,  and  energy  of  the 
Deity  of  his  office,  which  is  to  actuate  and  quicken  all 
things,  and  to  beget  energy  and  vivacity  in  the  creature  ; 
and  it  also  appears  that  the  holy  Spirit  is  this  act  of  the 
Deity,  even  love  and  delight,  because  from  eternity  there 
was  no  other  act  in  God  but  thus  acting  with  respect  to 
himself,  and  delighting  perfectly  and  infinitely  in  himself, 
or  that  infinite  delight  there  is  between  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  for  the  object  of  God's  perfect  act  must  neces- 
sarily be  himself,  because  there  is  no  other.  But  we 
have  shown  that  the  Object  of  the  divine  mind  is  God's 
Son  and  Idea  ;  and  what  other  act  can  be  thought  of  in 
God  from  eternity,  but  delighting  in  himself,  the  act  of 
love  which  God  is,  I.  John  iv.  8.  And  if  God  is  Love, 
and  he  that  dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in  God,  and  God  in 
him,  doubtless  this  intends  principally  the  infinite  love 
God  has  to  himself.  So  that  the  scripture  has  implicitly 
told  us  that  that  love,  which  is  between  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  is  God.  The  Holy  Spirit's  name  is  the  Com- 
forter, but  no  doubt  but  'tis  the  infinite  delight  God  has 
in  himself,  in  the  Comforter,  that  is  the  fountain  of  all 
delight  and  comfort. 

14 


APPENDIX    1. 

It  may  be  objected  that  at  this  rate  one  may  prove  an 
infinite  number  of  persons  in  the  godhead,  for  each 
person  has  an  idea  of  the  other  person,  thus  the  Father 
may  have  an  idea  of  his  Son,  but  you  will  argue  that  his 
idea  must  be  substantial.  I  answer,  that  the  Son  himself 
is  the  Father's  idea,  himself  :  and  if  he  has  an  idea  of  this 
idea,  it  is  yet  the  same  idea,  a  perfect  idea  of  an  idea  is 
the  same  idea  still  to  all  intents  and  purposes. 

Thus,  when  I  have  a  perfect  idea  of  my  idea  of  an 
equilateral  triangle,  it  is  an  idea  of  the  same  equilateral 
triangle  to  all  intents  and  purposes.  So  if  you  say  that 
God  the  Father  or  Son,  may  have  an  idea  of  their  own 
delight  in  each  other  ;  but  I  say  a  perfect  idea  or  percep- 
tion of  one's  own  perfect  delight  cannot  be  different,  at 
least  in  God,  from  the  delight  itself.  You'll  say  the  Son 
has  an  idea  of  the  Father,  I  answer  the  Son  himself  is 
the  idea  of  the  Father,  and  if  you  say  he  has  an  idea  of 
the  Father,  his  idea  is  still  an  idea  of  the  Father,  and 
therefore  the  same  with  the  Son  ;  and  if  you  say  the  Holy 
Spirit  has  an  idea  of  the  father,  I  answer  the  Holy  Spirit 
is  himself  the  delight  and  joyfulness  of  the  Father  in 
that  Idea  and  of  the  Idea  in  the  Father.  'Tis  still  the 
Idea  of  the  Father  ;  so  that  if  we  turn  it  all  the  ways  in 
the  world,  we  shall  never  be  able  to  make  more  than 
these  three  :  God,  the  idea  of  God,  and  delight  in  God. 

I  think  it  really  evident  from  the  light  of  reason  that 
there  are  those  three,  distinct  in  God.  If  God  has  an 
idea  of  himself  there  is  really  a  Duplicity,  because  [if] 
there  is  no  duplicity  it  will  follow  that  Jehovah  thinks  of 
himself  no  more  than  a  stone  ;  and  if  God  loves  himself, 
and  delights  in  himself,  there  is  really  a  Triplicity, 
Three  that  cannot  be  confounded ;  each  of  which  are  the 
Deity  substantially. 

And  this  is  the  only  distinction  that  can  be  found  or 

15 


APPENDIX    I. 

thought  of  in  God.  If  it  shall  be  said  that  there  are 
power,  wisdom,  goodness,  and  holiness,  in  God,  and  that 
these  may  as  well  be  proved  to  be  distinct  persons,  be- 
cause everything  that  is  in  God  is  God  ;  [I  answer,]  as  to 
the  Power  of  God,  Power  always  consists  in  something  ; 
the  power  of  the  mind  consists  in  its  wisdom,  the  power 
of  the  body  in  plenty  of  animal  spirits  and  toughness  of 
limbs,  etc.  And  as  it  is  distinct  from  those  other  things 
tis  only  a  relation  of  adequateness  and  sufficiency  of  the 
essense  to  everything.  But  if  we  distinguish  it  from 
relation,  it  is  nothing  else  but  the  essense  of  God,  and  if 
we  take  it  for  that  where  is  that  by  which  God  exerts 
himself,  it  is  no  other  than  the  Father ;  for  the  perfect 
energy  of  God  with  respect  to  himself  is  the  most 
proper  exertion  of  himself,  of  which  the  creation  of 
the  world  is  but  a  shadow.  As  to  the  Wisdom  of  God,  we 
have  already  observed  that  this  wholly  consists  in  God's 
idea  of  himself,  and  is  the  same  with  the  Son  of  God. 
And  as  to  Goodness,  the  eternal  exertion  of  the  essense 
of  that  attribute,  it  is  nothing  but  infinite  Love,  which, 
the  Apostle  John  says,  is  God ;  and  as  we  have  ob- 
served that  all  divine  love  may  be  resolved  into  God's 
infinite  love  to  himself,  therefore  this  attribute,  as  it  was 
exerted  from  eternity,  is  nothing  but  the  Holy  Spirit, 
which  is  exactly  agreeable  to  the  notion  some  have  had 
of  the  Trinity.  And  as  to  holiness,  tis  delight  in  excel- 
lency; tis  God's  truest  consent  to  himself,  or  in  other 
words  his  perfect  delight  in  himself,  which  we  have 
shewn  to  be  the  Holy  Spirit." 

"96.  Trinity.  The  argument  of  this  Observation  is 
from  the  perfect  goodness  of  God.  I  quote  a  few  sen- 
tences. 

"  It  appears  that  there  must  be  more  than  a  Unity  in 
infinite  and  eternal  Essence ;  otherwise  the  Goodness  of 

16 


APPENDIX    I. 

God  Can  have  no  perfect  exercises.  To  be  Perfectly 
Good,  is  to  incline  to,  and  delight  in,  making  another 
happy  in  the  same  proportion  as  it  is  happy  itself :  that 
is,  it  delights  as  much  in  communicating  happiness  to 
another  as  in  enjoying  it  himself,  and  [is]  an  inclination  to 

communicate  all  his  happiness God  must  have  a 

perfect  Exercise  of  his  Goodness,  and  therefore  must  have 
the  fellowship  of  a  person  equal  with  himself." 

"  98.  Trinity^  This  Observation  finds  in  the  Biblical 
application  to  the  Holy  Spirit  of  the  Symbol  of  a  Dove 
reason  for  supposing  that  He  "  is  nothing  but  the  infinite 
love  and  delight  of  God."  Part  of  p.  103  of  the  "  Essay  " 
recently  published  by  Professor  Fisher  is  identical  with 
this  number.  The  closing  sentence  of  the  Observation 
is  clearer  than  the  corresponding  one  in  the  "  Essay." 
It  reads :  "  It  was  under  this  representation  that  the 
Holy  [Ghost]  descended  on  Christ  at  his  Baptism,  signify- 
ing the  infinite  love  of  the  Father  to  the  Son,  and  that 
thereby  is  signified  that  infinite  love  that  is  between  the 
Father  and  the  Son  ;  which  is  further  illustrated  by  the 
voice  which  came  with  the  dove,  'This  is  my  beloved 
Son,  in  whom  I  am  well  Pleased.' " 

"117.  Trinity.  Love  is  certainly  the  Perfection  as 
well  as  Happiness  of  a  Spirit ;  God,  doubtless,  as  he  is 
infinitely  Perfect  and  happy,  has  infinite  love.  I  cannot 
doubt  but  that  God  loves  infinitely,  properly  speaking, 
and  not  with  that  which  some  Call  self-love,  whereby 
even  the  devils  desire  pleasure,  and  are  averse  to  pain, 
which  is  exceeding  improperly  called  love ;  and  is  nothing 
at  all  akin  to  that  affection  or  delight,  which  is  called  love. 
Then  there  must  have  been  an  object  from  all  Eternity, 
which  God  infinitely  loves.  But  we  have  shewed  that  all 
love  arises  from  the  perception,  either  of  Consent  to  being 
in   General,   or   Consent   to   that   being   that   percieves. 

17 


APPENDIX    I. 

Infinite  loveliness,  to  God,  therefore  must  consist  either 
in  infinite  Consent  to  Entity  in  General,  or  infinite  con- 
sent to  God.  But  we  have  shewn  that  consent  to  Entity, 
and  consent  to  God  are  the  same,  because  God  is  the 
General  and  only  proper  Entity  of  all  things ;  so  that  it  is 
necessary  that  that  object  which  God  infinitely  loves 
must  be  infinitely  and  perfectly  consenting  and 
agreeable  to  him  ;  but  that  which  infinitely  and  perfectly 
agrees  is  the  very  same  essense,  for  if  it  be  different  it 
dont  infinitely  consent." 

"  133.  Trinity.  Coroll.  to  a  former  meditation  of  the 
trinity.  hence  we  see  how  Generation  by  the  Father, 
and  yet  Coetaneity  with  the  Father,  or  being  begotten, 
and  yet  being  eternal,  are  Consistent ;  for  it  is  Easy  to 
Concieve  how  this  image,  this  thought,  Reason  or  Wisdom 
of  God  should  be  eternally  Begotten  by  him,  and  be- 
gotten by  him  from  Eternity,  and  Continually  through 
Eternity.  And  so  the  holy  Spirit,  that  personal  Energy, 
the  divine  love  and  delight,  Eternally  and  Continually 
proceeds  from  both. 

"  Coroll.  2.  Hence  we  see  how  and  in  what  sense  the 
Father  is  the  fountain  of  the  Godhead,  and  how  natur- 
ally and  Properly  God  the  Father  is  spoken  of  in  scripture, 
as  of  the  Deity  without  distinction,  as  being  the  only 
True  God,  and  why  God  the  Son  should  [be]  commonly 
spoken  of  with  a  distinction,  and  be  called  the  Son  of 
God ;  and  so  the  holy  Spirit,  the  Spirit  of  God.  o;^"  Re- 
member to  Look,  the  next  time  I  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of,  to  see  if  Spirit,  in  scripture  Phrase,  is  not  Com- 
monly put  for  affection,  and  never  for  understanding  ; 
and  to  shew  that  there  is  no  other  affection  in  God  but 
love  to  himself." 

"  136.  Trinity.  The  word  Spirit  most  Commonly  in 
Scripture  is  put  for  affections  of  the  mind  ;  but  there  is 


APPENDIX    I. 

no  other  affection  in  God  essentially,  properly,  and  pri- 
marily, but  love  and  delight,  and  that  in  himself  ;  for  into 
this  is  his  love  and  delight  in  his  Creatures  resolvable. 

"  I  dont  Remember  that  any  other  attributes  are  said 
to  be  God,  and  God  to  be  them  but  \6yos  and,  aydir-q,  or 
Reasoti  and  love.  I  Conclude  because  no  other  are  in 
that  (a  personal)  sense." 

"  141.  Trinity,  vid.  I  believe  that  Jesus  Christ  not 
only  is  exactly  in  the  image  of  [God],  but  in  the  most 
proper  sense  is  the  image  of  God.  Now  however  exactly 
one  being,  suppose  of  one  human  body,  [may  be]  like 
another.  Yet  I  think  one  is  not  in  the  most  proper  sense 
the  image  of  the  other,  but  more  Properly  in  the  image 
of  the  other.  Adam  did  not  beget  a  son  that  was  his 
image  properly,  but  in  his  image  ;  but  the  idea  of  a  thing 
is,  in  the  most  proper  sense  of  all,  its  image ;  and  God's 
idea  the  most  perfect  image." 

"  150.  Deity.  Many  have  wrong  conceptions  of  the 
difference  between  the  nature  of  the  Deity  and  that  of 
Created  spirits.  The  difference  is  no  contrariety,  but 
what  naturally  Results  from  his  Greatness  and  nothing 
else  ;  such  as  Created  spirits  come  nearer  to,  or  more 
imitate,  the  Greater  they  are  in  their  Powers  and  faculties. 
So  that  if  we  should  suppose  the  faculties  of  a  Created 
spirit  to  be  enlarged  infinitely,  there  would  be  the  Deity 
to  all  intents  and  Purposes  :  the  same  simplicity,  im- 
mutability, etc." 

"  179.  Logos.  It  the  more  Confirms  me  in  it  that  the 
Perfect  Idea,  God  has  of  himself,  is  truly  and  Properly 
God,  that  the  existence  of  all  Corporeal  things  is  only 
Ideas."  ^ 

»  Edwards's  idealism  is  not  subjective.  See  Am.  Journal  of  Theology, 
1897,  p.  ()S9;  Jonathan  Edirai-ds'  Idealisms:  Inaugural  Dissertation 
....  voii  John  Henry  MacCracken,  Ph.D.,  Halle  A.  .S.,  C.  A. 
Kaemmerer  &   Co.,    1899;    The  Early  Idealism  0/  Edwards,  by  Prof. 

19 


APPENDIX    I. 

"  184.  U?iton.  Spiritual.  [From]  What  insight  I  have 
of  the  nature  of  minds  I  am  convinced  that  there  is  no 
Guessing  what  kind  of  union  and  mixtion  by  Conscious- 
ness, or  otherwise,  there  may  be  between  them  ;  so  that 
all  difficulty  is  Removed  in  believing  what  the  scripture 
declares  about  spiritual  union  of  the  Persons  of  the 
Trinity,  of  the  two  natures  of  Christ,  of  Christ  and  the 
minds  of  Saints." 

"  194.  God.  That  is  a  Gross  and  unprofitable  idea  we 
have  of  God,  as  being  something  Large  and  Gross  as 
bodies  are,  and  infinitely  extended  throughout  the  im- 
mense Space.  For  God  is  neither  little,  nor  Great,  with 
that  sort  of  Greatness :  even  as  the  Soul  of  man  is  not  at 
all  extended,  no  more  than  an  idea,  and  is  not  present 
anywhere  as  bodies  are  present  as  we  have  shewn 
elsewhere.  So  t'is  with  respect  to  the  uncreated 
Spirit.  The  Greatness  of  a  Soul  Consists  not  in  any  exten- 
sion but  [in]  its  comprehensiveness  of  Idea  and  extended- 
ness  of  operation.  So  the  infiniteness  of  God  Consists  in 
his  perfect  Comprehension  of  all  things,  and  the  extended- 
ness  of  his  operation  equally  to  all  Places.  .  .  .  We  ought 
to  concieve  of  God  as  being  omnipotence,  perfect 
knowledge  and  Perfect  Love ;  .  .  .  .  and  not  as  if  it 
was  a  sort  of  unknown  thing,  that  we  Call  substance, 
that  is  extended." 

"  238.      Trinity.     Those  Ideas  which  we  Call  Ideas  of 

H.  Norman  Gardiner,  A.  M.,  republished  in  Jonathan  Edwards:  A 
Retrospect,  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1901. 

I  noticed  on  a  loose  leaf,  in  the  New  Haven  Collection  of  Edwards's 
Mss.,  apparently  in  a  later  hand-writing  than  the  early  papers,  this  entry  : 
"  How  there  may  be  more  in  material  Existence  than  Man's  Perception, 
past,  Present,  or  future. 

"  Show  how  far  the  Perception  of  superior  spirits  may  belong  to  this 
[illegible]  "and  how  far  the  Perception  of  God." 

Edwards's  Idealism  ("  Spiritualism  "■)  always  includes  a  something 
"more"  than  subjectivism  recognizes;  viz.  "a  perfectly  stable  idea 
in  God's  mind,  together  with  his  stable  Will  ....  with  respect  to  cor- 
responding communications  to  Created  Minds,  and  effects  on  their  minds  ;  " 
or,  as  phrased  on  the  leaf  referred  to  above,  "  an  universe  of  coexisting  and 
successive  Perceptions  connected  by  such  wonderful  methods  and  Laws." 

20 


APPENDIX    I. 

Reflection,  all  Ideas  of  the  acts  of  the  mind,  such  as  the 
Idea  of  thought,  of  Choice,  love,  fear,  etc.,  if  we  diligently 
attend  to  our  own  minds  we  shall  find,  they  are  not  properly 
Representations,  but  are  indeed  Repetitions  of  those  very 
things,  either  more  fully,  or  more  faintly  ;  they  therefore 
are  not  properly  Ideas.  Thus,  t'  is  impossible  to  have  an 
Idea  of  thought,  or  of  an  Idea,  but  it  will  [be]  that  same 
Idea  Repeated.  So  if  we  think  of  love,  either  of  our  past 
love  that  is  now  vanished,  or  of  the  love  of  others  which 
we  have  not,  we  either  so  frame  things  in  our  Imagination 
that  we  have  for  a  moment  a  love  to  that  thing,  or  to 
something  we  make  represent  it,  or  we  excite  for  a  mo- 
ment that  love  which  we  have,  and  suppose  it  in  another 
place,  or  we  have  only  an  idea  of  the  Antecedents,  Con- 
comitants, and  effects  of  love,  and  suppose  something  un- 
seen, and  Govern  our  thoughts  about  as  we  have  learned 
how  by  experience  and  habit.  Let  any  one  try  himself 
in  a  particular  instance,  and  diligently  observe.  So  if  we 
have  an  Idea  of  a  Judgment  not  our  own,  we  have  the 
same  Ideas,  that  are  the  terms  of  the  Proposition,  Re- 
peated in  our  own  minds,  and  recur  to  something  in 
our  own  minds,  that  is  Really  our  Judgment,  and  suppose 
it  there,  [That  is  we  Govern  our  thoughts  about 
it  as  if  it  were  there],  if  we  have  a  distinct  Idea  of 
that  Judgment ;  or  else  we  have  only  an  Idea  of  the  atten- 
dants and  effects  of  the  Judgment,  and  supply  the  name, 
and  our  actions  about  it  as  we  have  habituated  ourselves. 
And  so  Certainly  it  is  in  all  our  spiritual  Ideas  ;  they  are 
the  very  same  things  Repeated  perhaps  very  faintly  and 
obscurely,  and  very  quick,  and  momentaneously,  and  with 
many  new  References,  suppositions,  and  translations.  But 
if  the  Idea  be  perfect,  it  is  only  the  same  thing  absolutely 
over  again. 

Now  if  this  be  certain,  as  it  seems  to  me  to  be,  then  its 

21 


APPENDIX    I. 

quite  Clear  that  if  God  doth  think  of  himself,  and  un- 
derstand himself  with  perfect  Clearness,  fulness,  and  dis- 
tinctness, that  that  Idea  he  hath  of  himself  is  absolutely 
himself,  again,  and  is  God  perfectly  to  all  Intents  and 
purposes.  That  [idea]  which  God  hath  of  the  divine 
nature  and  Essence  is  really  and  fully  the  divine  nature 
and  Essence  again.  So  that  by  God's  thinking  of  him- 
self, the  Deity  must  certainly  be  Generated,  this  seems 
exceedingly  Clear  to  me. 

God  doubtless  understands  himself  in  the  most  proper 
sense,  for  therein  his  infinite  understanding  chiefly  con- 
sists ;  and  he  understands  himself  at  all  times  perfectly, 
without  intermission  or  succession  in  his  thoughts. 

When  we  have  the  Idea  of  another's  love  to  a  thing,  if 
it  be  the  love  of  a  man  to  a  woman  that  we  are  uncon- 
cerned about ;  in  such  cases  we  have  not  generally  any 
proper  Idea  at  all  of  his  Love,  we  only  have  an  Idea  of 
his  actions  that  are  the  effects  of  love,  as  we  have  found 
by  experience,  and  of  those  external  things  which  belong 
to  Love,  and  which  appear  in  Case  of  Love ;  or  if  we  have 
any  Idea  of  it,  it  is  either  by  forming  our  Ideas  so  of  per- 
sons and  things  as  we  suppose  they  appear  to  them,  that 
we  have  a  faint  vanishing  motion  of  their  affection  ;  or, 
if  the  thing  be  a  thing  that  we  so  hate,  that  this  can't 
be,  we  have  our  love  to  something  else  faintly  and  least 
excited,  and  so  in  the  mind  as  it  were  referred  to  this 
place,  we  think  this  is  Like  that." 

"  259.  Trinity.  T'  is  Evident  that  there  are  no  more 
than  these  three  Really  distinct  in  God  :  God,  and  his 
Idea,  and  his  Love  or  Delight.  We  cant  concieve  of 
any  further  Real  distinctions.  If  you  say  there  is  the 
Power  of  God  ;  I  answer,  the  Power  of  a  being,  even  in 
Creatures  is  nothing  distinct  from  the  being  itself  besides 
a   mere  Relation  to  an  effect.     If  you   say  there   is   the 

22 


APPENDIX    I. 

Infiniteness,  Eternity,  and  Immutability  of  God ;  they  are 
mere  modes  and  manners  of  existence.  If  you  say  there 
is  the  wisdom  of  God  ;  that  is  the  Idea  of  God.  If  you 
say  there  is  the  holiness  of  God  ;  that  is  not  different 
from  his  Love  as  we  have  shewn,  and  is  the  holy  Spirit. 
If  you  say  there  is  the  Goodness  and  mercy  of  God ;  they 
are  included  in  his  Love,  they  are  his  Love  with  a  Relation. 
We  Can  find  no  more  in  God,  that  even  in  Creatures  are 
distinct  from  the  very  being  ;  or,  there  is  no  more  than 
those  three  in  God,  but  what  even  in  Creatures  are 
only  but  the  same  with  the  very  being,  or  only  some 
mere  modes,  or  Relations,  duration,  extension,  Changeable- 
ness,  or  unchangeableness,  so  far  as  attributed  to 
Creatures,  or  only  mere  modes,  and  Relations  of  existence. 
There  are  no  more  than  these  three  that  are  distinct  in 
God,  even  in  our  way  of  concieving. 

There  is  in  Resemblance  to  this  threefold  distinction 
in  God  a  threefold  distinction  in  a  Created  Spirit  : 
namely,  the  spirit  itself,  and  its  understanding,  and  its 
will,  or  Inclination,  or  love  ;  and  this  Indeed  is  all  the  real 
distinction  there  is  in  Created  spirits." 

"260.  Trinity.  There  is  no  other  properly  Spiritual 
Image  but  Idea,  although  there  may  be  another  Spiritual 
thing  that  is  exactly  like.  Yet  one  thing  being  exactly 
like  another  dont  make  it  the  proper  image  of  that 
thing.  If  there  be  any  distinct  spiritual  substance  ex- 
actly like  another,  yet  is  not  the  proper  image  of  the 
other,  tho  one  be  made  after  the  other,  yet  it  is  not 
any  more  an  Image  of  the  first,  than  the  first  is  of  the 
Last. 

That  Christ  is  the  spiritual  Image  and  Idea  of  God  see 
John  xii.  45  ;  xiv.  7,  8,  9.  Seeing  the  Perfect  Idea  of  a 
thing,  is,  to  all  Intents  and  purposes,  the  same  as  seeing 
the  thing.     It  is  not  only  equivalent  to  seeing  of  it,  but  it 


APPENDIX    I. 

is  seeing  of  it ;  for  there  is  no  other  seeing  but  having 
an  Idea.  Now,  by  seeing  a  perfect  Idea,  so  far  as  we 
see  it,  we  have  it.  But  it  cant  be  said  of  anything  else, 
that,  in  seeing  of  it,  we  see  another,  speaking  strictly,  ex- 
cept it  be  the  very  Idea  of  the  other.  The  Oil,  that 
signifies  the  Holy  Ghost,  with  which  Christ  is  anointed, 
is  Called  the  oil  of  gladness  :  the  Holy  Ghost  is  God's 
delight,  joy.  Ps.  xlv.  7,  Isai.  Ixi.  3.  "The  oil  of  joy  for 
mourning."     They  anointed  themselves  to  express  Joy. 

Another  Name  of  the  Son  of  God  that  shows  that  he  is 
God's  perfect  Idea,  is  the  Amen,  which  is  a  Hebrew  word 
that  signifies  truth.  Divine  truth,  or  the  Eternal  truth 
of  God,  is  God's  perfect  understanding  of  himself,  which 
is  his  perfect  understanding  of  all  things." 

"308.  Trinity.  With  Respect  to  that  Objection  against 
this  explication  of  the  Trinity,  that  according  to  the 
truth  of  this  Reasoning  there  would  not  only  be  three 
persons,  but  an  Infinite  number,  for  we  must  suppose 
that  the  Son  understands  the  Father,  as  well  as  the 
Father  the  son,  and  Consequently  the  Son  has  an  Idea  of 
the  father  and  so  that  Idea  will  be  another  person,  and 
so  may  be  said  of  the  Holy  Ghost :  This  objection  is 
but  a  colour  without  substance,  and  arises  in  a  Confusion 
of  thought  and  a  misunderstanding  of  what  we  say.  In 
the  first  place  we  dont  suppose  that  the  Father,  the  Son, 
and  the  Holy  Ghost,  are  three  distinct  beings,  that  have 
three  distinct  understandings.  It  is  the  Divine  essense 
that  understands,  and  it  is  the  divine  essence  is 
understood ;  Tis  the  Divine  being  that  loves,  and  tis  the 
Divine  being  that  is  loved.  The  father  understands,  the 
Son  understands,  and  the  holy  Ghost  understands,  be- 
cause everyone  is  the  same  understanding  Divine  essense 
and  not  that  Each  of  them  had  a  distinct  understanding 
of  their  own.     2.     We  never  supposed  the  Father  gene- 

24 


APPENDIX    I, 

rated  the  Son  by  Understanding  the  Son  ;  but  that  God 
Generated  the  Son  by  understanding  his  own  Essense,  and 
that  the  Son  is  that  Idea  itself,  or  Understanding  of  the 
Essense.  The  Father  understands  the  Son,  no  otherwise 
than  as  he  understands  that  essence,  that  is  the  essence 
of  the  Son.  The  Fatlier  understands  the  Idea  he  has 
merely  in  his  having  that  Idea  without  any  other  act : 
thus  a  man  understands  his  own  perfect  Idea,  merely  by 
his  having  that  Idea  in  his  mind.  So  the  Son  understands 
the  Father  in  that  the  Essense  of  the  Son  understands 
the  essence  of  the  Father,  or  in  himself  being  the  un- 
derstanding of  that  Essense,  and  so  of  the  holy  Ghost. 
After  you  have  In  your  imagination  multiplied  under- 
standings and  loves  never  so  often,  it  will  be  the 
Understanding  and  loving  the  very  same  essense,  and  you 
can  never  make  more  than  these  three  ;  God,  and  the  Idea 
of  God,  and  the  love  of  God.  But  I  would  not  be 
understood  to  pretend  to  Give  a  full  explication  of  the 
Trinity  ;  for  I  think  it  still  remains  an  Incomprehensible 
mystery,  the  Greatest  and  the  most  Glorious  of  all 
mysteries." 

''309.  Tri?tity.  The  name  of  the  Second  person  in 
the  Trinity,  Aoyos,  evidences  that  he  is  God's  Idea ; 
whether  we  translate  the  word  t/ie  Reaso7i  of  God,  or  the 
word  of  God.  If  the  Reason  or  the  Understanding  of 
God,  the  matter  is  past  Dispute  ;  for  everyone  will  own 
that  the  Reason  or  understanding  of  God  is  his  Idea. 
And  if  we  translate  it  the  word  of  God,  he  is  either  the 
outward  word  of  God  or  his  Inward.  None  will  say  he  is 
his  outward.  Now  the  outward  word  is  Speech  ;  but  the 
inward  word,  which  is  the  Original  of  it,  is  thought,  the 
Scripture  being  its  own  Interpreter ;  for  how  often  is 
thinking  in  Scripture  called  Speaking,  when  applied  to 
God  and  men  :  So  that  it  is  the  Idea,  if  we  take  the 
Scripture  for  our  Guide,  that  is  the  Inward  word." 

25 


APPENDIX    I. 

"  330.  Holy  Ghost,  It  appears  that  the  holy  Spirit  is 
the  holiness  or  excellency  and  delight  of  God,  because  our 
Communion  with  God,  and  with  Christ,  Consists  in  our 
Partaking  of  the  holy  Ghost:  11.  Cor.  xiii.  14;  i.  Cor. 
vi.  17;  I.  John  iii.  24;  and  iv.  13.  The  Oil  that  was 
upon  Aaron's  head  Ran  Down  to  the  Skirts  of  his  Gar- 
ments. The  Spirit,  which  Christ,  our  head,  has  without 
measure,  is  Communicated  to  his  Church  and  people. 
The  sweet  Perfumed  oil  signified  Christ's  excellency,  and 
sweet  delight.     Philip,  ii.  i. 

Communion  we  know  is  nothing  else  but  the  Common 
partaking  with  others  of  good.  Communion  with  God  is 
nothing  else  but  a  partaking  with  him  of  his  excellency, 
his  holiness,  and  happiness." 

"  336,  Iriniiy.  All  the  metaphorical  Representations 
of  the  holy  Ghost  in  the  Scripture,  such  as  water,  fire, 
breath,  wind,  oil,  wine,  a  spring,  a  River  of  Living  water 
as  proceeding  from  God,  do  Abundantly  the  most 
Naturally  Represent  the  perfectly  active,  flowing  affection. 
Holy  love  and  Pleasure  of  God.  So  the  holy  Ghost  is 
said  to  be  Poured  out,  and  shed  forth  ;  Acts  ii.  32,  33. 
Titus  iii.  5,  6.  So  Love  is  said  to  be  shed  abroad  in  our 
hearts." 

"  341.  Trinity.  I  can  think  of  no  other  Good  account 
that  Can  be  Given  of  the  apostle  Paul's  wishing  Grace 
and  peace,  or  Grace,  mercy,  and  Peace  from  God  the 
Father,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  beginning  of 
his  Epistles  without  Ever  mentioning  the  holy  Ghost,  but 
that  the  holy  Ghost  is  the  Grace,  the  Love  and  peace  of 
God  the  Father,  and  (the)  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  find  it 
so  fourteen  times  in  all  his  salutations,  in  the  beginning  of 
his  Epistles ;  and,  in  his  blessing  at  the  end  of  his 
II  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  where  all  three  Persons  are 
mentioned,  he  wishes    Grace  and  Love  from  the  Son  and 

26 


APPENDIX    I. 

the  Father,  but  the  Coniviimion  of  the  holy  Ghost,  that  is 
the  Partaking  of  him.  The  blessing  from  the  Father  and 
the  Son,  is  the  holy  Ghost ;  but  the  blessing  from  the  holy 
Ghost  is  himself,  a  Communication  of  himself." 

"  362.  lyinity.  We  have  a  lively  Image  of  the 
Trinity  in  the  Sun  ;  The  Father  is  as  the  substance  of  the 
sun  ;  the  Son  is  as  the  brightness  and  Glory  of  the  disk 
of  the  sun,  or  that  bright  and  Glorious  form  under  which 
it  appears  to  our  eyes  ;  the  Holy  Ghost  is  as  the  heat  and 
Powerful  influence,  which  acts  upon  the  Sun  itself,  and 
being  Diffusive  Enlightens,  warms.  Enlivens,  and  com- 
forts the  world.  The  Spirit,  as  heat  is  God's  Infinite 
Love  and  happiness,  is  as  the  Internal  heat  of  the  Sun  ; 
but,  as  it  is  that  by  which  God  communicates  himself,  he 
is  as  the  Emitted  beams  of  God's  Glory:  11.  Cor.  iii.  18, 
that  is  we  are  Changed  to  glory,  or  to  a  shining  bright- 
ness, as  Moses  was,  from,  or  by  God's  glory  or  shining, 
even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  i.  e.  which  Glory  or 
shining  is  the  spirit  of  the  Lord.  The  word,  that  is 
translated  From  with  Respect  to  Glory,  and  By  with 
respect  to  the  Spirit,  is  the  same  in  the  Original,  it  is  utto, 
in  both,  and  therefore  would  have  been  more  intelligibly 
translated,  "  we  are  Changed  By  Glory  into  Glory,  even 
as  By  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord."  Moses  was  Changed  by 
God's  glory  Shining  upon  him,  even  as  we  are  Changed 
by  God's  Spirit,  Shed  as  bright  beams  on  us. 

The  Spirit  of  God  is  Called  the  Spirit  of  glory,  i  Peter 
iv.  14.  The  Spirit  of  glory  Resteth  upon  you,  upon  two 
accounts,  because  it  is  the  glory  of  God,  and  as  it  were 
his  Emitted  beams,  and  as  it  is  the  believer's  glory,  and 
causes  him  also  to  shine. 

The  various  sorts  of  Rays  of  the  Sun  and  their  Beau- 
tiful Colours  do  well  Represent  the  Spirit,  and  the 
amiable  excellency   of   God,    and   the    various    beautiful 

27 


APPENDIX    I. 

Graces  and  virtues  of  the  Spirit ;  the  same  we  find  in 
Scripture  are  made  use  of  by  God  for  that  purpose, 
even  to  signify  and  Represent  the  Graces  and  virtues 
of  the  Spirit.  Therefore  I  suppose  the  rainbow  was 
Chosen  to  be  a  sign  of  the  Covenant,  and  St.  John 
saw  a  Rainbow  Round  about  the  throne  of  God,  Rev. 
iv.  3,  and  a  Rainbow  upon  the  head  of  Christ,  Chap. 
X.  I.  So  Ezekiel  saw  a  Rainbow  Round  about  the 
throne,  Ezek.  i.  28.  And  I  believe  the  variety  that  there 
is  in  the  Rays  of  the  sun,  and  their  various  beautiful 
Colours  were  designed  in  the  Creation  for  this  very  pur- 
pose.    See  Shadows  of  divine  things,  No.  58. 

There  is  yet  more  of  an  Image  of  the  Trinity  in  the 
soul  of  man.  There  is  the  mind,  and  its  understanding 
or  Idea,  and  the  will  or  affection,  or  Love  :  answering  to 
God,  the  Idea  of  God,  and  the  love  of  God. 

Indeed  the  whole  animal  Creation,  which  is  but  the 
shadows  of  beings,  is  So  made  as  to  Represent  Spiritual 
things  :  it  might  be  demonstrated  by  the  wonderful  agree- 
ment in  thousands  of  things,  much  of  the  same  kind  as  is 
between  the  types  of  the  old  testament  and  their  antitypes  ; 
and  by  their  being  spiritual  things  —  being  so  often  and 
Continually  compared  with  them  in  the  word  of  God,  and  it 
is  agreeable  to  God's  wisdom  that  it  should  be  so,  that  the 
Inferior  and  shadowy  Parts  of  his  works  should  be  made 
to  Represent  those  things  that  are  more  Real  and  ex- 
cellent, spiritual  and  divine,  to  Represent  the  things  that 
Immediately  concern  himself  and  the  highest  Parts  of  his 
work.  Spiritual  things  are  the  Crown  and  glory,  the  head 
and  soul,  the  very  End  and  alpha,  and  Omega  of  all 
other  works  ;  what,  therefore,  can  be  more  agreeable  to 
wisdom  than  that  they  should  be  so  made  as  to  shadow 
them  forth  ?  and  we  know  that  this  is  according  to  God's 
method,  which  his  wisdom  has  chosen  in  other  matters. 

28 


APPENDIX    I. 

Thus  the  Inferiour  Dispensation  of  the  Gospel  was  all  to 
shadow  forth  the  highest  and  most  excellent  which  was 
its  end  :  thus  almost  Everything  that  was  said  or  done, 
that  we  have  Recorded  in  scripture  from  adam  to  Christ, 
was  typical  of  Gospel  things.  Persons  were  typical  per- 
sons ;  their  actions  were  typical  actions  ;  the  cities  were 
typical  cities ;  the  nation  of  the  Jews  and  other  nations 
were  typical  nations ;  their  Land  was  a  typical  Land  ; 
God's  Providences  towards  them  were  typical  Provi- 
dences ;  their  worship  was  typical  worship  ;  their  houses 
were  typical  houses ;  their  magistrates,  typical  magis- 
trates ;  their  clothes,  typical  clothes ;  and  Indeed  the 
world  was  a  typical  world.  And  this  is  God's  manner  to 
make  inferior  things  shadows  of  the  Superior,  and  most 
excellent ;  outward  things  shadows  of  spiritual ;  and  all 
other  things,  shadows  of  those  things  that  are  the  End  of 
all  things,  and  the  Crown  of  all  things.  Thus  God  Glori- 
fies himself  and  Instructs  the  minds  that  he  has  made." 

"376.  Trinity.  It  Can  no  other  way  be  accounted 
for,  that  in  the  first  of  John  i.  3,  '  Our  fellowship  '  is  said 
to  be  '  with  the  Father,  and  with  his  Son  Jesus  Christ,' 
and  that  it  is  not  said  to  be  also  with  the  holy  Ghost,  but 
because  our  Communion  with  them  Consists  in  our  Com- 
munion of  the  holy  Ghost  with  them.  It  is  in  our  Par- 
taking of  the  holy  Ghost,  that  we  have  Communion  with 
Father  and  Son,  and  with  Christians.  This  is  the  Com- 
mon excellency  and  delight,  in  which  they  all  are  united  : 
this  is  the  bond  of  perfectness,  by  which  they  are  one  in 
the  Father,  and  the  Son,  as  the  Father  is  in  the  Son  and 
the  Son  in  the  Father." 

"  405.  Trinity.  It  may  be  thus  expressed,  the  Son  is 
the  Deity,  Generated  by  God's  understanding,  or  having 
an  Idea  of  himself ;  the  holy  Ghost  is  the  Divine  Essence 
flowing  out,  or  breathed  forth  in  Infinite  Love  and  De- 

29 


APPENDIX    I. 

light;  or  which  is  the  same,  the  Son  is  God's  Idea  of 
himself,  and  the  Spirit  is  God's  Love  to  and  delight  In 
himself." 

"446.  Tri?iiiy.  Christ  is  called  the  face  of  God, 
Exod.  xxxiii,  14,  and  the  angel  of  God's  face,  the  word  in 
the  original  signifies  face,  or  looks,  form,  or  appearance 
of  a  thing  :  Now  what  can  be  so  fitly  called  so  as  God's 
own  Perfect  Idea  of  himself ;  whereby  he  has  every  mo- 
ment a  view  of  his  own  essence  ?  This  is  that  face,  as- 
pect, form,  or  appearance,  whereby  God  Eternally  ap- 
pears to  himself,  and  more  Perfectly  than  man  appears  to 
himself  by  his  form  or  appearance  in  a  looking  glass. 
The  Root,  that  the  word  comes  from,  signifies  to  look 
upon  or  behold.  Now  what  is  that  which  God  looks 
upon,  or  beholds,  in  so  Eminent  a  manner,  as  he  doth  on 
his  own  Idea,  or  the  perfect  Image  of  himself,  which  he 
has  in  view.  This  is  that  which  is  Eminently  in  his 
presence,  this  is  the  Angel  of  his  presence". 

"  1065.  lyifiity.  That  the  Spirit  of  God  is  the  Love 
of  God,  well  agrees  to  the  Scripture  names,  appellations, 
and  representations  of  this  Person  of  the  Trinity :  his  be- 
ing called  the  Spirit  of  God,  or  Breath  of  God  ;  and  being 
compared  to  water,  to  a  Spring,  a  River,  a  Shower,  to 
flowing  oil,  and  precious  ointment,  to  wind,  and  Fire  ; 
and  to  his  being  represented  as  flowing  forth,  poured  out, 
breathed  forth,  blowing,  burning,  being  Quenched,  etc. 
Holy  affection  is  aptly  compared  to  fire,  to  breath,  to  a 
flowing  Stream,  and  is  aptly  spoken  of  as  burning,  being 
enkindled,  cherished  and  quenched,  flowing  out,  breathed 
forth,  dift'used  abroad,  etc.  But  the  Representation 
would  be  very  unnatural  if  we  should  speak  of  under- 
standing, wisdom,  or  Idea,  as  breathed  forth,  poured  out, 
shed  abroad,  burning,  blowing,  etc.  And  it  is  not  very 
credible  that  those  names,   similitudes  and    Representa- 

30 


APPENDIX    I. 

tions  that  are  given  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  are  no  more 
adapted  to  him  than  to  the  other  Persons  of  the  Trinity, 
any  other  way  than  by  an  arbitrary  constitution,  or  agree- 
ment of  the  Persons  of  the  Trinity,  appointing  a  Par- 
ticular work  to  the  Holy  Spirit,  no  more  suited  to  any 
thing  in  this  person  of  the  Trinity  as  he  is  in  himself  any 
more  than  to  either  of  the  other  Persons,  and  that  there 
was  nothing  in  the  nature  of  things  but  that  the  Son  of 
God,  or  the  Father  might  as  properly  have  been  ap- 
pointed to  the  same  ofhce,  and  so  that  either  of  the 
former  Persons  of  the  Trinity,  might  in  that  Case  as 
properly  be  Represented  by  breath,  wind,  Rain,  a  River, 
ointment  and  fire,  and  be  spoken  of  as  flowing,  breathing 
forth,  burning,  shed  abroad,  being  quenched,  etc.,  as  the 
Holy  Spirit.  I  have  shown  No.  1062,  Corol.  that  the 
second  Person  in  the  Trinity  has  not  the  name  of  the  Son 
of  God  from  his  appointment  to  his  office,  and  work  on 
the  affair  of  our  Redemption ;  and  there  is  no  more 
Reason  to  think  that  the  Spirit  of  God  is  so  called  only 
from  his  particular  office  and  work  in  that  affair." 

"1162.  It  may  be  worthy  of  consideration  whether  or 
no  some  of  the  Heathen  Philosophers  had  not  with  re- 
gard to  some  things,  some  degree  of  Inspiration  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  which  led  them  to  say  such  wonderful 
things  concerning  the  Trinity,  the  Messiah,  etc.  In- 
spiration is  not  so  high  an  Honor  and  Privilege  as  some 
are  ready  to  think.  It  is  no  peculiar  Privilege  of  God's 
Special  favorites ;  many  very  bad  men  have  been  the 
subjects  of  it,  yea  some  that  were  Idolaters.  Balaam  was 
an  Idolater,  and  a  great  sorcerer,  or  wizard,  and  yet  He 
was  the  subject  of  Inspiration,  and  that  even  when  in  the 
Practice  of  his  witchcraft,  when  He  went  to  seek  by  en- 
chantments. Yea,  the  devils  themselves,  seem  some- 
times  to  have  been  immediately  actuated  by  God,  and 

31 


APPENDIX    I. 

forced  to  speak  the  Truth  in  Honor  to  Christ  and  his 
Religion.  So  the  Devil  at  the  oracle  of  Delphi  was 
probably  actuated  by  God,  and  compelled  to  confess 
Christ,  and  own  that  the  Hebrew  Child  to  be  above  him, 
and  had  sent  Him  to  Hell,  and  forbidden  Him  to  give 
forth  any  more  oracles. 

Why  might  not  Socrates  and  Plato,  and  some  others  of 
the  wise  men  of  Greece  have  some  degree  of  Inspiration  ; 
as  well  as  the  wise  men  from  the  East,  who  came  to  see 
Christ  when  an  Infant.  Those  wise  men  dwelt  among 
the  Heathen,  as  much  as  the  wise  men  of  Greece,  and 
were  in  like  manner  Gentiles,  born  of  heathens,  and 
brought  up  among  them,  and  we  have  no  Reason  to  think 
that  they  were  themselves  less  of  Heathens  than  several 
of  the  Grecian  Philosophers  ;  at  least  before  they  were 
the  subjects  of  that  Inspiration  that  moved  them  to  follow 
the  star  that  led  them  to  Christ. 

Pharaoh  and  his  Chief  Butler  and  Baker  were  the 
subjects  of  a  sort  of  Inspiration  in  the  dreams  they  had  ; 
for  it  is  Evident  those  dreams  were  divine  Revelations ; 
as  were  Nebuchadnezzar's  dreams.  He,  though  a 
Heathen,  and  a  very  wicked  man,  and  a  Great  Idolater, 
yet  had  a  Revelation  concerning  the  Messiah,  and  his 
future  Kingdom,  In  his  dream  of  the  great  Image,  and 
the  stone  cut  out  of  the  mountain  without  Hands. 

If  it  be  objected,  that,  if  we  suppose  some  of  the 
Heathen  Philosophers  to  have  Truths  suggested  to  them 
by  the  Inspiration  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  we  must  suppose 
that  God  gave  those  Revelations  without  giving  with 
Them  any  certain  Evidences  by  which  others,  to  whom 
they  declared  them  might  determine  them  to  be  such,  or 
by  which  they  might  be  obliged  to  regard  a)id  receive 
them  as  such :  Allowing  this  to  be  the  Case,  yet  a 
good  end   might   be   answered   in  giving   those  Revela- 

32 


APPENDIX    I. 

tions  nevertheless.  Though  they  could  be  no  Rule  to 
the  heathen,  among  whom  they  lived,  yet  they  might 
be  of  use  these  three  ways. 

1.  They  might  dispose  the  Heathen  nations,  as  they 
had  occasion,  to  converse  with  the  Jews,  and  to  be  in- 
formed of  the  Revelations  and  Prophecies  that  they  had 
among  them,  to  attend  the  more  to  them,  and  to  enquire 
into  them,  and  their  Evidences. 

2.  They  might  prepare  the  Gentile  nations,  that  had 
among  them  the  Records  of  those  sayings  of  their 
most  noted  and  famous  wise  men,  to  receive  the  Gospel 
when  God's  Time  came  for  its  promulgation  among  those 
nations,  by  disposing  them  the  more  diligently  and  im- 
partially to  attend  to  it. 

3.  They  may  be  of  Great  Benefit  to  the  Christian 
Church,  ages  after  they  were  delivered  ;  as  they  serve  as 
a  Confirmation  of  the  great  Truths  of  Christianity. 

4.  We  know  not  what  Evidence  God  might  give  to 
the  men  themselves  that  were  the  Subjects  of  these  In- 
spirations, that  they  were  divine,  and  were  true ;  (as  we 
know  not  what  evidence  was  given  to  the  wise  men  of  the 
East  of  the  divinity  of  their  Revelations  ; )  and  so  we 
know  not  of  how  great  Benefit  the  truths  suggested 
might  be  to  their  own  souls." 


33 


APPENDIX    I. 
B.    END    OF    THE    CREATION. 

"^^.  Religion.  Tis  very  certain  that  God  did  not 
create  the  world  for  nothing.  Tis  most  certain  that  if 
there  were  not  intelligent  beings  in  the  world,  all  the 
world  would  be  without  an  end  at  all ;  for  senseless 
matter,  in  whatever  excellent  order  it  is  placed,  would  be 
useless,  if  there  were  no  intelligent  beings  at  all,  neither 
God  nor  others  ;  for,  what  would  it  be  good  for  ?  So, 
certainly,  senseless  matter  would  be  altogether  useless,  if 
there  was  no  intelligent  being  but  God,  for  God  could 
neither  receive  good  himself,  nor  communicate  good. 
What  would  this  vast  universe  of  matter  placed  in 
such  excellent  order,  and  governed  by  such  excellent  rule 
be  good  for  if  there  was  no  intelligence  that  could  know 
anything  of  it  ?  Wherefore  it  necessarily  follows  that  in- 
telligent beings  are  the  end  of  the  creation  ;  though  their 
end  must  be  to  behold  and  admire  the  doings  of  God,  and 
magnify  him  for  them,  and  to  contemplate  his  glories  in 
them.  Wherefore  religion  must  be  the  end  of  the  creation, 
the  great  end,  the  very  end.  If  it  were  not  for  this  all 
those  vast  bodies,  we  see  ordered  with  so  excellent  skill, 
so  acceptable  to  the  surest  rules  of  proportion,  according 
to  such  laws  of  gravity  and  motion  would  be  all  vanity, 
or  good  for  nothing,  and  to  no  purpose  at  all,  for  religion 
is  the  very  business,  the  noble  business  of  intelligent 
beings.  And  for  this  end  God  has  placed  us  on  this 
earth.  If  it  were  not  for  men,  this  world  would  be 
altogether  in  vain,  with  all  the  curious  workmanship  of 
it,  and  accoutrements  about  it.  It  follows  from  this  that 
we  must  be  immortal. 

The  world  had  as  good  have  been  without  us,  as  for  us 
to  be  a  few  minutes  and  then  be  annihilated.  If  we  are 
not  to  own  God's  works  to  his  glory,  and  only  glorify  him  a 

34 


APPENDIX    I. 

few  minutes  and  then  be  annihilated  and  it  shall  after  that 
be  all  one  to  eternity  as  if  we  never  had  been,  and  be  in 
vain,  after  we  are  dead,  that  we  have  been  once,  and  then 
after  the  earth  shall  be  destroyed  it  shall  be  for  the 
future  entirely  in  vain  that  either  the  earth  or  mankind 
have  ever  been.  The  same  agreement  seem  to  be  used, 
Isai.  xlv.  17,  18." 

"  k  k.  Religion.  Corollary.  Since  the  world  would  be 
altogether  good  for  nothing  without  intelligent  beings,  so 
intelligent  beings  would  be  altogether  good  for  nothing 
except  to  contemplate  the  Creator.  Hence  we  learn  that 
devotion  and  not  mutual  love,  charity,  justice,  benefi- 
cence, etc.,  are  the  highest  end  of  man,  and  devotion  is 
his  principal  business  ;  for  all  justice,  beneficence,  etc., 
are  good  for  nothing  without  it,  or  to  no  purpose  at  all, 
for  those  duties  are  only  for  the  advancement  of  the  great 
business,  to  assist  mutually  each  other  to  it." 

"  /  /.  Religion.  It  may  be  said.  If  religion  be  really 
the  very  business  of  man,  for  which  God  made  him,  it  is 
a  wonder  it  is  no  more  natural  to  them  ;  the  world  in  gen- 
eral learnd  and  unlearnd  say  little  about  it,  they  are  very 
awkward  at  it ;  as  if  it  were  contrary  to  their  nature.  I 
answer,  Tis  no  wonder,  because  Sin  has  brought  them 
down  nearer  to  the  beast,  a  sort  of  animals  uncapable  of 
religion  at  all." 

"87.  Happiness.  'Tis  evident  that  the  end  of  man's 
creation  must  needs  be  happiness  from  the  motive  of 
God's  creating  the  world,  which  could  be  nothing  else  but 
his  goodness.  If  it  be  said  that  the  end  of  man's  creation 
might  be  that  he  might  manifest  his  power,  wisdom,  holi- 
ness, or  justice;  so  I  say  too;  But  the  question  is.  Why 
God  would  make  known  his  power,  wisdom,  etc.  What 
could  move  him  to  will  that  there  should  be  some  beings 
that  might  know  his  power,  and  wisdom  ?     It  could  be 

35 


APPENDIX    I. 

nothing  else  but  his  goodness.  This  is  the  question  : 
What  moved  God  to  exercise  and  make  known  these 
attributes.  We  are  not  speaking  of  subordinate  ends,  but 
of  the  ultimate  end  ;  of  that  motive  into  which  all  ofhers 
may  be  resolved.  '  Tis  a  very  proper  question  to  ask, 
What  attribute  moved  God  to  exert  a  power ;  but  '  tis  not 
proper  to  ask,  What  moved  God  to  exert  his  goodness  ? 
for  this  is  the  notion  of  goodness,  an  inclination  to  shew 
goodness.  Therefore  such  a  question  would  be  no  more 
proper  than  this,  viz..  What  inclines  God  to  exert  his 
inclination  to  exert  goodness  ?  which  is  nonsense ;  for  it  is 
an  asking  and  answering  a  question  in  the  same  words. 
God's  power  is  shown  no  otherwise  than  by  his  power- 
fully bringing  about  some  end.  The  very  notion  of  wis- 
dom is  wisely  contriving  for  an  end  ;  and  if  there  be  no 
end  proposed,  whatever  is  done  is  not  wisdom.  Where- 
fore, if  God  created  the  world  merely  from  goodness, 
every  whit  of  this  goodness  must  necessarily,  ultimately 
terminate  in  the  consciousness  of  the  Creation,  for  the 
world  is  no  other  way  capable  of  receiving  goodness  in 
any  measure,  but  intelligent  beings  are  the  consciousness 
of  the  world.  The  end  therefore  of  their  creation  must 
necessarily  be  that  they  may  receive  the  goodness  of  God, 
that  they  may  be  happy." 

"92.  E7td  of  Creation.  How  then  Can  it  be  said  that 
God  has  made  all  things  for  himself,  if  it  is  certain  that 
the  highest  End  of  the  Creation  was  the  communication 
of  happiness  ?  I  answer :  That  which  is  done  for  the 
Gratifying  of  a  natural  inclination  of  God  may  very 
properly  be  said  to  be  done  for  God.  God  takes  Com- 
placence in  Communicating  felicity,  and  he  made  all 
things  for  this  Complacence.  His  Complacence  is  this, 
this  is  making  happiness  the  End  of  the  Creation.  Rev. 
iv.  II." 

36 


APPENDIX    I. 

"104.  End  of  the  Creatio7i.  We  have  proved  that  the 
end  of  the  creation  must  needs  be  happiness  and  the 
communication  of  the  goodness  of  God  ;  and  that  nothing 
but  the  Almighty's  inclination  to  communicate  of  his  own 
happiness  could  be  the  motive  to  him  to  create  the  world  ; 
and  that  man  or  intelligent  being  is  the  immediate  object 
of  this  goodness,  and  subject  of  this  communicated  happi- 
ness. And  we  have  shown  also  that  the  Father's  be- 
getting of  the  Son  is  a  complete  communication  of  all  his 
happiness,  and  so  an  eternal  adequate  and  infinite  ex- 
ercise of  perfect  goodness  that  is  completely  equal  to 
such  an  inclination  in  perfection  ;  why  then  did  God  in- 
cline further  to  communicate  himself,  seeing  he  had  done 
it  infinitely  and  completely?  Can  there  be  an  inclination 
to  communicate  goodness  more  than  adequately  to  the 
inclination  ?  To  say  so,  is  to  say,  that  to  communicate 
goodness  adequate  to  the  inclination,  is  not  yet  adequate, 
inasmuch  as  he  inclines  to  communicate  further,  as  in  the 
creation  of  the  world.  To  this  I  say.  That  the  Son  is  the 
adequate  communication  of  the  Father's  goodness,  and  is 
an  express  and  complete  image  of  him.  But  yet  the  Son 
has  also  an  inclination  to  communicate  himself  in  an 
image  of  his  person,  that  may  partake  of  his  happiness, 
and  this  was  the  end  of  the  creation  even  the  communi- 
cation of  the  happiness  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  this  was 
the  only  motive  herein,  even  the  Son's  inclination  to  this. 
But  God  the  Father  is  not  the  object  of  this,  for  the 
Father  is  not  a  communication  of  the  Son,  and  therefore 
not  the  object  of  the  Son's  goodness  ;  but  men,  that  is 
those  of  them  that  are  holy ;  as  the  Son  says,  Psalm  xvi. 
2,  3.  It  is  Christ  here  speaks,  as  is  evident  by  the  fol- 
lowing passage.  And  Man,  the  consciousness  or  per- 
ception of  the  creation  is  the  immediate  subject  of  this. 
Therefore  the  Church  is  said  to  be  the  completeness  of 

37 


APPENDIX    I. 

Christ,  Eph.  i.  23,  As  if  Christ  were  not  complete  with- 
out the  Church,  as  having  a  natural  inclination  thereto. 
We  are  incomplete  without  that  which  we  have  a  natural 
inclination  to.  The  man  is  incompleat  without  the 
woman ;  She  is  himself,  as  Christ  is  not  complete  without 
his  spouse.  The  soul  is  not  complete  without  the  body, 
because  human  souls  have  a  natural  inclination  to  dwell 
in  a  body  :  So  Ephesians  i.  and  ii.  last  verses.  Prov.  viii. 
30,  31.  First  we  are  told  where  the  Father's  delight  was, 
and  also  the  mutual  delight  of  the  Son,  and  then  where 
the  Son's  delight  is  in  the  object  of  his  communication  of 
his  goodness.  "  Then  I  was  by  him  as  one  brought  up 
with  him,  etc."  The  Son  is  the  fulness  of  God,  and  the 
Church  is  the  fulness  of  the  Son  of  God. 

Corol.  I.  Then  doubtless  he  is  the  only  proper  and  fit 
person  to  be  the  Redeemer  of  men. 

Corol.  2.  Therefore  they  are  so  nearly  united  to  Christ 
and  shall  have  such  intimate  communion  with  him,  shall 
sit  down  with  him  in  his  throne,  even  as  he  is  set  down  in 
his  Father's  throne  and  sit  with  him  in  the  judgment  of 
the  world,  and  their  glory  and  honour  and  happiness 
shall  be  so  astonishingly  great,  as  is  spoken  of  in  the 
Scripture. 

Corol.  3.  Therefore  the  Son  created  and  doth  govern 
the  world  ;  seeing  that  the  world  was  a  communication  of 
him,  and  seeing  the  communicating  of  his  happiness  is 
the  end  of  the  world. 

Corol.  4.  We  may  learn  in  what  sense  Christ  says, 
John  XV.  9  :  As  the  Father  loveth  the  Son  as  a  communi- 
cation of  himself  as  begotten  in  pursuance  of  his  eternal 
inclination  to  communicate  himself,  so  the  Son  of  God 
loveth  the  Church  or  the  Saints,  as  the  effect  of  his  love 
and  goodness,  and  natural  inclination  to  communicate 
himself. 

38 


APPENDIX    I. 

Corol.  5.  Hence  the  meaning  of  Col.  i.  16,  17,  18.  In 
this  verse  there  is  a  trinity,  an  image  of  the  eternal 
trinity ;  wherein  Christ  is  the  everlasting  Father,  and  be- 
lievers are  his  Seed,  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  comforter,  is 
the  third  person  in  Christ,  being  his  delight  and  love 
flowing  out  towards  the  Church.  In  believers  the  Spirit 
and  delight  of  God  being  communicated  unto  them  flows 
out  towards  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  vid.  note  on  Dan.  ix. 
25,  Mark  xiv.  3,  and  Gen.  xxviii.  11,  12. 

Corol.  6.  Hence  we  may  plainly  percieve  how  these 
expressions  of  the  Lord  Jesus  are  to  be  understood,  John, 
xvii.  21,  22,  23,  24,  John  xiv.  20;  These  sayings  at  first 
seem  like  nothing  but  words  carelessly  cast  together,  very 
abstruse  and  dark,  but  yet  we  may  here  see  and  know 
what  he  meant.  Many  other  of  Christ's  speeches  may 
receive  light  from  hence ;  the  meaning  of  the  apostle 
John's  gospel  and  epistles  particularly,  and  many 
passages  through  the  whole  Bible. 

Corol.  7.  How  glorious  is  the  gospel  that  reveals  to  us 
such  things. 

Corol.  8.  Hence  we  see  why  it  is  most  suitable  and 
proper  that  the  Son  of  God  should  have  the  immediate 
management  of  the  affairs  of  the  church,  and  that  it 
should  be  this  person  of  the  Trinity  that  has  all  along 
manifested  himself  by  the  visible  tokens  of  his  presence 
to  the  antediluvians,  the  Patriarchs  and  Israelites." 

"197.  Christian  Religion.  It  seems  to  me  exceeding 
Congruous  and  the  highest  manner  Consentaneous  that  a 
God,  a  being  of  infinite  Goodness  and  love,  who,  it  is 
evident  from  mere  Reason,  Created  the  world  for  this 
very  End,  to  make  the  Creation  happy  in  his  love  :  I  say 
it  seems  exceeding  Congruous,  that  he  should  Give  to  the 
Creature  the  highest  sort  of  Evidence  or  Expression  of 
love.     For  why  should  not  that  love,  which  is  infinitely 

39 


APPENDIX    I. 

higher  than  any  other  and  the  love  of  a  being  infinitely 
more  excellent,  of  which  other  love  is  but  the  emanation 
and  shadow  ;  why  should  not  that  love  have  the  highest 
and  most  noble  manifestations  and  the  surest  Evidences  ? 
Now  we  know  that  the  highest  sort  of  manifestations  and 
evidence  of  love  is  expence  for  the  beloved.  How  much 
soever  the  lover  Gives,  or  Communicates  to  the  beloved, 
yet,  if  he  is  at  no  expence  himself,  there  is  not  that  high 
and  noble  expression  of  love  as  if  otherwise.  Now  I  Can 
Clearly  and  distinctly  concieve  how  the  Giving  of  Christ 
should  have  all  that  in  it,  that  Renders  it  every  way  an 
equal,  and  like,  and  perfectly  equivalent  expression  of 
love,  as  the  greatest  expence  in  a  lover ;  as  I  have  shown 
elsewhere.  And  this  is  a  way  that  is  exceeding  noble  and 
excellent,  and  agreeable  to  the  Glorious  Perfections  of 
God.  But  no  other  way  can  be  Concieved  of  ;  and  they 
that  deny  the  Christian  Religion  Can  Pretend  no  other ; 
and  if  they  do  'tis  impossible  they  should  think  of  any  in 
any  measure  so  exalted,  noble,  and  excellent." 

"  243.  Glory  of  God.  The  first  part  of  the  xvii.  Chap, 
of  John,  and  the  18  verse  of  the  xii.  Chap.,  and  Isai. 
xlviii.  II,  and  Isai.  xlii.  8,  and  many  other  such  passages 
of  Scripture,  make  me  think  that  God's  glory  is  a  good, 
independent  of  the  happiness  of  the  creature  ;  that  it  is  a 
good  absolutely  and  in  itself  and  not  merely  as  subor- 
dinate to  the  Creature's  real  good  ;  nor  not  merely  because 
it  is  the  Creature's  highest  good  :  a  good  that  God  seeks, 
(if  I  may  so  speak)  not  merely  as  he  seeks  the  Creature's 
happiness,  but  for  itself ;  that  he  seeks  absolutely,  as  an 
independent,  ultimate  good.  And  many  passages  in  the 
Old  Testament  that  seem  to  speak  as  if  the  end  of  his 
doing  this  or  that  was  his  honour's  sake,  or  his  name's 
sake  ;  though  it  still  appears  to  me  exceedingly  plain  that 
to  Communicate  goodness  is  likewise  an  absolute  good, 

40 


APPENDIX    I. 

and  what  God  seeks  for  itself,  and  that  the  very  being  of 
God's  goodness  necessarily  supposes  it ;  for  to  make 
happy  is  not  goodness,  if  it  be  done  purely  for  another 
superior  end." 

"247.  Glory  of  God.  For  God  to  glorify  himself  is  to 
discover  himself  in  his  works,  or  to  communicate  himself 
in  his  works,  which  is  all  one.  For  we  are  to  remember 
that  the  world  exists  only  mentally  ;  so  that  the  very  be- 
ing of  the  world  implies  its  being  perceived,  or  discovered. 
Or  otherwise,  for  God  to  glorify  himself,  is,  in  his  acts 
ad  extra,  to  act  worthy  of  himself,  or  to  act  excellently. 
Therefore  God  does  not  seek  his  own  glory  because  it 
makes  him  the  happier  to  be  honoured  and  highly  thought 
of,  but  because  he  loves  to  see  himself,  his  own  excel- 
lencies and  glories  appearing  in  his  works  :  He  loves  to 
see  himself  communicated.  And  it  was  his  inclination  to 
communicate  himself,  that  was  a  prime  motive  of  his 
creating  the  world.  His  own  glory  was  tlie  ultimate  end  ; 
himself  was  his  end ;  that  is  himself  communicated. 
The  very  phrase  the  glory  seems  naturally  to  signify 
Glory  is  a  shining  forth,  an  effulgence.  So  the  glory 
of  God  is  the  shining  forth,  or  effulgence  of  his 
perfections,  or  the  communication  of  his  perfections; 
for  effulgence  is  the  communication  of  light.  For  this 
reason  that  brightness,  whereby  God  was  wont  to 
manifest  himself  in  the  wilderness,  and  in  the  tabernacle 
and  temple,  was  called  God's  glory.  So  the  bright- 
ness of  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  is  called  their  glory  ; 
I  Cor.  XV.  41,  John  i,  14.  We  beheld  his  glory,  that  is 
his  brightness,  in  his  transfiguration.  11  Peter  i.  17, 
Heb.  i.  3,  Rev.  xviii,  i,  that  is  brightness.  Rev.  xxi.  11, 
verse  23.  So  that  the  glory  of  God  is  the  shifting 
forth  of  his  perfections ;  and  the  world  was  created, 
that  they  might  shine  forth ;  that  is  that  they  might 
be  communicated." 

41 


APPENDIX    I. 

"271.  End  of  the  Creation.  It  is  indeed  a  condecent 
thing,  that  God  should  be  the  Ultimate  End  of  the 
creation,  as  well  as  the  Cause  ;  that  in  creating  he  should 
make  himself  his  end,  that  he  should  in  this  respect  be 
ofnega  as  well  as  alpha,  and  the  Scripture  saith,  "  God 
hath  made  all  things  for  himself ;  "  and  this  may  be,  and 
yet  the  reason  of  his  creating  the  world  be  his  propensity 
to  goodness  ;  and  the  communication  of  happiness  to 
creatures  be  the  end.  It  perhaps  was  thus  :  God  created 
the  world  for  his  Son,  that  he  might  prepare  for  him  a 
spouse  or  bride  to  bestow  his  love  upon,  so  that  the 
mutual  joys  between  this  bride  and  bridegroom  are  the 
end  of  the  creation.  God  is  really  happy  in  loving  his 
creatures  ;  because  in  so  doing  he  as  it  were  glorifies  a 
natural  propensity  in  the  divine  nature,  viz.,  goodness. 
Yea,  and  he  is  really  delighted  in  the  love  of  his  creatures, 
and  in  their  glorifying  him,  because  he  loves  them,  not 
because  he  needs  ;  for  he  could  not  be  happy  therein, 
were  it  not  for  his  love  and  goodness.  Col.  i,  16,  "All 
things  were  made  by  him,  and  for  him  ;  "  that  is  for  the 
Son." 

"332.  End  of  the  Creation."  The  great  and  universal 
End  of  God's  creating  the  world  was  to  communicate 
Himself.  God  is  a  communicative  being.  His  com- 
munication is  really  only  to  intelligent  beings.  The 
communication  of  Himself  to  their  understandings  is  His 
glory  and  the  communication  of  Himself  with  respect  to 
their  wills,  the  enjoying  faculty  is  their  happiness.  God 
created  the  world  for  the  shining  forth  of  his  excellency 
and  for  the  flowing  forth  of  his  happiness.  It  dont  make 
God  the  happier  to  be  praised,  but  it  is  a  becoming  and 
condecent  and  worthy  thing  for  infinite  and  supreme  ex- 
cellency so  to  do." 

"  445.     End  of  the  Creation.     There  is  a  necessity  of 

42 


APPENDIX    I. 

supposing  that  the  exercise  of  God's  goodness,  or  the 
Communication  of  his  happiness  is  not  merely  a  sub- 
ordinate End,  but  stands  in  the  Place  of  an  Ultimate 
End  ;  though  there  is  no  necessity  of  supposing  it  the 
only  ultimate  end.  But  if  God's  making  his  Glory  to 
appear  be  an  ultimate  end,  this  must  stand  not  in  sub- 
ordination to  it,  but  fellow  to  it,  and  in  the  same  Rank 
with  it ;  for  to  suppose  that  God's  Communication  of 
Goodness  is  wholly  subordinate  to  some  other  End,  is  to 
suppose  that  it  is  not  from  God's  Goodness.  That  which 
is  Done  by  any  being  Entirely  in  subordination  to  some 
other  End,  or  that  is  not  done  at  all  for  the  sake  of  itself  ; 
that  is  wholly  and  only  for  some  other  thing,  that  is  more 
ultimately  in  view.  The  attribute  or  disposition,  that  ex- 
cites to  that  action,  is  wholly  that  which  seeks  that  more 
ultimate  end.  Thus  if  God  makes  the  Creature  happy, 
only  for  a  further  end,  viz.,  that  he  may  manifest  his  own 
perfections  by  it ;  then  his  making  the  Creature  happy  is 
not  Indeed  from  his  goodness,  or  his  disposition  to  com- 
municate good,  but  wholly  from  the  attribute  or  dis- 
position of  the  divine  nature,  whereby  he  is  disposed  to 
'shew  forth  his  own  excellency.  It  is  not  consistent  with 
the  nature  of  Goodness  to  be  wholly  moved  and  excited 
by  something  else  that  is  not  Goodness. 

If  it  be  said  that  God  Communicates  good  to  the 
creature  only  to  manifest  that  Part  of  his  essential  Glory, 
viz.,  his  Goodness,  this  implies  a  Great  absurdity  ;  for  it 
supposes  that  God  is  good  only  to  manifest  his  own 
goodness,  which  goodness  is  only  an  Inclination  to  mani- 
fest his  glory  this  way.  So  that  now  it  Comes  to  this,  that 
God  is  Good  in  order  to  manifest  his  Inclination  that  he 
has  to  manifest  his  Inclination  to  Communicate  good.  He 
Communicates  that  he  may  glorify  his  goodness,  which 
goodness  itself  is  nothing  else  but  an  inclination  to  com- 

43 


APPENDIX    I. 

municate  good  for  this  end,  viz.,  to  glorify  his  inclination 
to  communicate  good  to  this  end.  And  so  we  may  run 
to  Endless  nonsense. 

If  God  is  Good  only  to  manifest  the  Glory  of  his  Good- 
ness, then  this  would  be  that  Glory  which  was  manifested, 
even  his  Inclination  to  manifest  his  own  glory.  God  has 
an  Inclination  to  manifest  his  own  Glory,  and  the  Glory 
which  he  manifests  is  this,  viz.,  his  disposition  to  manifest 
his  own  Glory  ;  for  his  Goodness  is  nothing  else,  if  the 
sole  ultimate  end  of  communicating  Good  be  to  Glorify 
himself  or  to  shew  forth  the  glory  of  his  goodness. 
Surely  God's  Glory,  that  is  to  be  manifested,  must  be 
Considered  as  something  Prior  to  his  disposition  or  de- 
sign to  manifest  it.  God's  Inclining  or  designing  or 
exerting  himself  to  show  his  glory,  surely,  is  not  that  very 
Glory  which  he  shows  :  the  Glory  must  be  something  else 
besides  the  manifestation  of  it. 

You  will  say.  Why  may  not  the  same  be  said  of  God's 
Justice ;  why  can't  the  exercise  of  that  be  argued  to  be  an 
ultimate  End  of  the  creation  ?  I  answer.  That  when  the 
world  is  already  Created,  merely  the  Glorifying  his  Jus- 
tice Cannot  be  the  only  motive  to  his  acting  Justly ;' 
though  the  Glorifying  that  attribute  might  be  the  motive 
for  his  giving  himself  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  that 
attribute  by  making  the  Creatures. 

Indeed  the  glory  of  God  cannot  be  Considered  as  the 
Proper  end  of  God's  acts  of  Justice  ;  for  if  it  be  tis  the 
glory  of  his  justice  is  the  End,  which  will  Imply  those 
absurdities  mentioned  concerning  God's  Goodness  being 
altogether  for  the  glory  of  his  goodness. 

A  view  to  the  Glorifying  of  God's  Justice  is  not  the 
sole  motive  to  God's  acting  Justly  when  there  is  occasion  ; 
for  he  acts  Justly,  because  tis  agreeable  to  his  nature, 
and    he   delights   so   to    do.      God's    glorifying    himself 

44 


APPENDIX    I. 

might  be  his  End  in  Giving  himself  occasion  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  Justice. 

So  that  although  God's  Glorifying  and  Communicating 
himself  were  the  sole  Ends  for  which  he  created  the 
world ;  yet  they  cannot  be  Properly  Considered  as  the 
sole  ends  of  All  that  God  does  in  the  world.  Thus  God 
when  he  speaks  the  truth  to  his  C'reatures  the  sole  motive 
to  his  speaking  the  truth,  when  he  does  speak,  (is  not  to 
glorify  his  truth  ;)  for  tis  impossible  that  he  should  speak 
anything  else  :  he  speaks  the  truth,  because  he  delights  in 
truth  for  its  own  sake. 

But  the  attribute  of  Justice,  or  a  Just  disposition  of  the 
Divine  nature  cannot  be  directly  the  motive  to  God's 
Creating  the  world,  as  his  Goodness  may.  For  a  Just 
disposition  has  for  its  object  only  being,  existing  either  in 
act,  or  design.  It  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  an  inclina- 
tion to  do  Justice,  upon  all  occasions,  should  Properly 
be  his  motive  to  Give  Creatures  being  that  there  may  be 
occasion  (to  exercise  it;)  for  that  is  not  any  part  of  the 
notion  we  have  of  Justice  —  a  disposition  to  make  occa- 
sions for  the  exercise  of  Justice.  It  must  be  some  other 
disposition  that  does  that ;  and  in  God,  it  is  his  dis- 
position to  cause  his  attributes  to  shine  forth,  or  to 
Glorify  himself.  But  now  Goodness,  or  an  Inclination  to 
Communicate  Good,  has  merely  possible  being  as  much 
its  proper  object,  as  actual,  or  designed,  being.  A  dis- 
position to  Communicate  Good  will  move  a  being  to 
make  the  occasion  for  the  Communication  ;  and  Indeed 
Giving  being  is  one  part  of  the  Communication.  If  God 
be  in  himself  Disposed  to  Communicate  himself,  he  is 
therein  disposed  to  make  the  Creatures  to  communicate 
himself  to ;  because  he  can't  do  what  he  is  in  himself  dis- 
posed to  do  without  it.  (iod's  Goodness  is  not  an  Inclina- 
tion to  Communicate  himself,  as  occasion  shall  offer,  or  a 

45 


APPENDIX    I. 

disposition,  conditionally,  to  Communicate  himself;  but 
absolutely. 

But  God's  Just  and  Righteous  disposition  is  only  his 
disposition  to  act  Justly  upon  every  occasion.  If  God  be 
in  himself  just  that  supposes  no  more  than  that  he  will 
certainly  act  Justly,  whenever  there  is  occasion  for  his 
being  concerned  with  the  rights  or  deserts  of  any.  It 
dont  Imply  in  its  nature  a  disposition  to  make  occasion 
for  it.  If  God  be  disposed  to  make  occasions  for  the 
exercise  of  his  attributes,  that  must  be  only  because  he  is 
disposed  to  cause  his  excellencies  to  shine  forth,  or  to 
glorify  himself.  Vid.  461.  Vid.  note  on  the  cxxxvi 
Psalm." 

"  448.  End  of  Creation.  God  is  glorified  within  him- 
self these  two  ways. 

1.  By  appearing,  or  being  manifested  to  himself  in 
his  own  perfect  Idea  ;  or  in  his  Son,  who  is  the  brightness 
of  his  glory. 

2.  By  enjoying  and  delighting  in  himself,  by  flowing 
forth  in  infinite  Love  and  Delight  towards  himself ;  or  in 
his  Holy  Spirit. 

So  God  glorifies  himself  towards  the  creatures  also  two 
ways. 

1.  By  appearing  to  them  ;  being  manifested  to  their 
understanding. 

2.  In  communicating  himself  to  their  hearts,  and  in 
their  rejoicing  and  delighting  in,  and  enjoying,  the  mani- 
festations which  he  makes  of  himself. 

They  both  of  them  may  be  called  his  glory  in  the  more 
extensive  sense  of  the  word,  viz.,  his  shining  forth,  or  the 
going  forth  of  his  excellency,  beauty  and  essential  glory, 
ad  extra.  By  one  way  it  goes  forth  towards  their  under- 
standings, by  the  other  it  goes  forth  towards  their  wills  or 
hearts.     God  is  glorified  not  only   by    his  glory's  being 

46 


APPENDIX    I. 

seen,  but  by  its  being  rejoiced  in.  When  those  that  see 
it  delight  in  it,  God  is  more  glorified,  than  if  they  only 
see  it.  His  glory  is  then  received  by  the  whole  soul, 
both  by  the  understanding  and  by  the  heart.  God  made 
the  world  that  he  might  communicate,  and  the  creature 
receive,  his  glory  ;  and  that  it  might  [be]  received  both 
by  the  mind  and  heart.  He  that  testifies  his  views  or 
idea  of  God's  glory,  does  not  glorify  God  so  much,  as  he 
that  testifies  also  his  approbation  of  it,  and  his  delight  in  it. 
Both  those  ways  of  God's  glorifying  himself  came  from 
the  same  cause,  viz.,  the  overflowing  of  God's  internal 
glory,  or  an  inclination  in  God  to  cause  his  internal  glory 
to  flow  out  ad  extra.  What  God  has  in  view  in  either  of 
them,  either  in  his  manifesting  his  glory  to  the  under- 
standing or  [his]  communication  of  it  to  the  heart,  is  not 
that  he  may  receive  but  that  he  go  forth.  The  main 
end  of  his  shining  forth  is,  not  that  he  may  have  his  rays 
reflected  back  to  himself,  but  that  the  rays  may  go  forth. 
And  this  [is]  very  consistent  with  what  we  are  taught  of 
God's  being  the  Alpha,  and  Omega,  the  first  and  the  last. 
God  made  all  things  ;  and  the  end  for  which  all  things 
are  made,  and  for  which  they  are  disposed,  and  for  which 
they  work  continually,  is  that  God's  glory  may  shine  forth 
and  be  received.  From  him  all  creatures  come,  and  in 
him  their  well  being  consists.  God  is  all  their  beginning, 
and  God,  received,  is  all  their  end.  From  him,  and  to 
him,  are  all  things ;  they  are  all  from  him,  and  they  are 
all  to  be  brought  to  him  ;  but  it  is  not  that  they  may  add 
to  him,  but  that  God  might  be  received  by  them.  The 
damned  indeed  are  not  immediately  to  God,  but  they  are 
ultimately  ;  they  are  to  the  glorified  saints  and  angels, 
and  they  to  God,  that  God's  glory  may  be  manifested  in 
them  unto  the  vessels  of  mercy. 

It  is  said  that  God  hath  made  all  things  for  himself  ; 

47 


APPENDIX    I. 

and  in  the  Revelation  it  is  said  they  are  created  for  God's 
pleasure ;  that  is  they  are  made  that  God  may  in  them 
have  occasion  to  fulfil  his  good  pleasure  in  manifesting 
and  communicating  himself.  In  this  God  takes  delight, 
and  for  the  sake  of  this  delight  God  creates  the  world, 
but  this  delight  is  not  properly  from  the  creature's  com- 
munication to  God,  but  in  his  to  the  creature ;  it  is  a  de- 
light in  his  own  act. 

Let  us  explain  the  matter  how  we  will,  there  is  no  way 
that  the  world  can  be  for  God  save  than  so  for  It  can't 
be  so  for  him,  as  that  he  can  receive  anything  from  the 
creature. 

"  553.  End  of  the  Creation.  There  are  many  of  the 
divine  attributes,  that,  if  God  had  not  created  the  world, 
never  would  have  had  any  exercise  :  the  power  of  God, 
the  Wisdom  of  God,  the  prudence  and  contrivance  of 
God,  the  goodness  and  mercy,  and  grace  of  God,  and  the 
justice  of  God.  It  is  fit  that  the  divine  attributes  should 
have  exercise.  Indeed  God  knew  as  perfectly  that  there 
were  those  attributes  fundamentally  in  himself  before 
they  were  in  exercise  as  since.  But  as  God  he  delights  in 
his  own  excellency  and  glorious  perfections,  so  he  delights 
in  the  exercise  of  those  perfections.  It  is  true  that  there 
was  from  eternity  that  act  in  God,  within  himself,  and 
towards  himself,  that  was  the  exercise  of  the  same 
perfection  of  his  nature.  But  it  was  not  the  same 
kind  of  exercise ;  it  virtually  contained  it,  but  there 
was  not  explicitly  the  same  exercise  of  his  perfection. 
God,  who  delights  in  the  exercise  of  his  own  perfection, 
delights  in  all  the  kinds  of  its  exercise.  That  eternal  act 
or  energy,  of  the  divine  nature  withi?i  him  whereby  he 
infinitely  loves  and  delights  in  himself,  I  suppose  does 
imply,  fundamentally,  goodness  and  grace  towards 
creatures,  if  there  be  that  occasion,  which  infinite  wisdom 

48 


APPENDIX    I. 

sees  fit.  But  God,  who  delights  in  his  own  perfection, 
delights  in  seeing  those  exercises  of  his  perfection 
explicitly  in  being,  that  are  fundamentally  implied." 

"  662.  End  of  the  Creation.  Glory  of  God.  It  may 
be  enquired  Why  God  would  have  the  exercises  of  his 
perfections  and  expressions  of  His  glory  known,  and  pub- 
lished abroad. 

Answer,  It  was  meet  that  His  attributes  and  perfections 
should  be  expressed ;  it  was  the  will  of  God  that  they 
should  be  expressed  and  should  shine  forth ;  but  if  the 
expressions  of  his  attributes  are  not  known  they  are 
not  expressions  ;  the  very  being  of  the  expression  de- 
pends on  the  perception  of  created  understandings ;  and 
so  much  the  more  as  the  expression  is  known,  so  much 
the  more  it  is." 

"  1082.  End  of  the  Creation.  The  glory  of  the  Lord 
in  scripture  seems  to  signify  the  excellent  brightness  and 
fulness  of  God,  and  especially  as  spread  abroad,  diffused, 
and  as  it  were  enlarged  :  or,  in  one  word,  the  excellency 
of  God  flowing  forth.  This  was  represented  in  the 
Shechinah  of  old.  Here,  by  the  excellency  of  God,  I 
would  be  understood  of  everything  in  God  in  any  respect 
excellent,  all  that  is  great  and  good  in  the  Deity ;  in- 
cluding the  excellent  sweetness,  and  blessedness  that  is 
in  God,  and  the  infinite  fountain  of  happiness  that  the 
Deity  is  possessed  of,  that  is  called  the  fountain  of  life, 
the  water  of  life,  the  river  of  God's  pleasures,  God's 
light,  etc.  The  flowing  forth  of  the  ineffably  bright  and 
sweet  effulgence  of  the  Shechinah,  represented  the  flow- 
ing out  and  communicating  of  this  as  well  as  the  mani- 
festation of  his  majesty  and  beauty  ;  joy  and  happiness  is 
represented  in  scripture  as  often  by  light,  as  by  water, 
fountains,  streams,  etc. — And  the  communication  of 
God's  happiness  is  represented    by   the    flowing   out   of 

49 


APPENDIX    I. 

sweet  light  from  the  Shechinah,  as  well  as  by  the  flowing 
forth  [of]  a  stream  of  delights,  and  the  diffusing  of  the 
holy  oil,  called  the  fulness  of  God's  house,  Ps.  xxxvi, 
7,8,  9. 

A  fountain  in  diffusing  itself  abroad  in  streams,  and  the 
holy  anointing  oil  in  diffusing  itself  in  a  sweet  odour,  are, 
in  a  scripture  sense,  glorified  and  magnified,  as  well  as 
the  lamps  in  the  temple  by  diffusing  abroad  their  light. 

Happiness  is  very  often  in  scripture  called  by  the 
name  of  glory,  or  included  in  that  name,  in  scripture. 
God's  eternal  glory  includes  his  blessedness  ;  and  when 
we  read  of  the  glorifying  of  Christ,  and  the  glory  which 
the  Father  has  given  him,  it  includes  his  heavenly  joy. 
And  so,  when  we  read  of  the  glory  promised  to  or  con- 
ferred on  the  saints,  and  of  their  being  glorified,  their  un- 
speakable happiness  is  a  main  thing  intended.  Their 
joy  is  full  of  glory,  and  they  are  made  happy  in  partaking 
of  Christ's  glory  :  the  fulness  of  the  saints'  happiness  is 
the  riches  of  God's  glory  in  the  saints.  Therefore  the 
diffusing  the  sweetness  and  blessedness  of  the  divine 
nature  is  God's  glorifying  himself,  in  a  scripture  sense, 
as  well  as  his  manifesting  his  perfection  to  their  under- 
standings. The  beams,  that  flow  forth  from  the  infinite 
fountain  of  light  and  life,  don't  only  carry  light,  but  life, 
with  them  ;  and  therefore  this  light  is  called  the  light  of 
life,  as  the  beams  of  the  sun  have  both  light  and  warmth, 
and  do  both  enlighten  and  quicken,  and  so  bless,  the  face 
of  the  earth. 

This  twofold  way  of  the  Deity's  flowing  forth  ad  extra, 
answers  to  the  twofold  way  of  the  Deity's  proceeding 
ad  intra,  in  the  proceeding  and  generation  of  the  Son, 
and  the  proceeding  and  breathing  forth  of  the  Holy 
Spirit ;  and  indeed  is  only  a  kind  of  second  proceeding 
of  the  same  persons  :  their  going  forth  ad  extra,  as  before 
they  proceeded  ad  intra.^' 

SO 


APPENDIX    I. 

"115 1.  End  of  the  Creation .  It  is  no  just  objection 
against  God's  aiming  at  glorifying  himself,  as  one  way  of 
that  flowing  out,  or  beaming  forth  of  the  infinite  good 
that  is  to  be  considered  under  the  notion  of  a  last  end  of 
God's  works  ;  that  this  adds  nothing  to  God's  happiness  ; 
any  more  than  it  is  a  just  objection  against  his  Com- 
municating his  happiness  to  his  creatures  being  aimed  at 
by  him  as  his  last  end  ;  for  the  creature's  happiness  does 
not  properly  add  anything  to  God's  happiness,  any  more 
than  God's  being  glorified  in  the  view  of  the  creature, 
and  by  the  creature,  adds  something  to  God's  happiness. 
It  is  true,  God  delights  in  communicating  his  happiness 
to  the  creature,  as  therein  he  exercises  a  perfection  of  his 
nature,  and  does  that  which  is  condecent,  amiable,  and 
beautiful,  and  so  enjoys  himself  and  his  own  perfection 
in  it,  as  his  perfection  is  exercised  in  it.  So,  in  like 
manner,  he  delights  in  glorifying  himself,  as  it  is  in  itself 
condecent  and  beautiful  that  infinite  brightness  and  glory 
should  shine  forth,  and  it  is  a  part  of  the  perfection  of 
God  to  seek  it. 

These  two  ways  of  the  divine  good  beaming  forth,  are 
agreeable  to  the  two  ways  of  the  divine  essense  flowing 
out,  or  proceeding  from  eternity  within  the  godhead,  in 
the  person  of  the  Son  and  Holy  Spirit :  the  one,  in  an  ex- 
pression of  his  glory,  in  the  idea  or  knowledge  of  it ;  the 
other,  the  flowing  out  of  the  essence  in  love  and  joy.  It 
is  condecent  that,  correspondent  to  these  proceedings  of 
the  divinity  ad  intra,  God  should  also  flow  forth  ad  extra. 

The  one  last  end  of  all  things  may  be  expressed,  thus  : 
It  is,  that  the  infinite  good  might  be  communicated  ;  that 
it  might  be  communicated  to,  or  rather  in,  the  under- 
standing of  the  creature,  which  communication  is  God's 
declarative  glory ;  and  that  it  might  be  communicated 
to    the  other  faculty  (usually,  though  not  very  express- 

51 


APPENDIX    I. 

ively,  called  the  Will)  which  communication  is  the  mak- 
ing the  creature  happ)?^  in  God,  as  a  partaker  of  God's 
happiness." 

*'  12 18.  Etid  of  the  Creation^  Glory  of  God,  etc.  It 
can't  be  properly  said  that  the  end  of  God's  creating  of 
the  world  is  twofold;  or  that  there  are  two  parallel  co- 
ordinate ends  of  God's  creating  the  world  :  one,  to  exer- 
cise his  perfections  ad  extra;  another,  to  make  his 
creatures  happy.  But  all  is  included  in  one,  viz.,  God's 
exhibiting  his  perfections,  or  causing  his  essential  glory 
to  be  exercised,  expressed  and  communicated  ad  extra. 
Tis  true  that  we  must  suppose  that,  prior  to  the  creature's 
existence,  God  seeks  occasion  to  exercise  his  goodness, 
and  opportunity  to  communicate  happiness,  and  that  this 
is  one  end  whereby  he  gives  being  to  creatures  ;  and  so 
we  must  conceive  this  prior  to  the  creature's  existence. 
He  seeks  occasion  to  exercise  other  attributes  of  his 
nature,  that  can  have  none  but  creatures  for  their  objects  ; 
as  his  justice,  his  faithfulness,  his  wisdom,  etc.  But  a 
disposition  to  seek  opportunity  and  occasion  for  the  exer- 
cise of  goodness  towards  those  that  now  have  no  being, 
and  so  a  being  disposed  to  give  being  to  creatures,  that 
there  may  be  such  an  opportunity,  is  not  the  same  attri- 
bute that  we  commonly  call  Goodness  ;  any  more  than  a 
disposition  to  seek  opportunity  or  occasion  to  exercise 
justice,  and  so  to  give  being  to  creatures  that  there  may 
be  such  occasion,  is  not  the  same  attribute  that  we  call 
Justice.  God  seeks  occasion  for  the  exercise  of  one  and 
the  other  of  those  attributes,  by  giving  existence  to  beings 
that  may  be  capable  objects  of  their  exercise,  in  the  same 
manner,  and  for  one  common  reason,  viz.,  because  it  is 
in  itself  fit  and  suitable  that  these  attributes  of  God 
should  be  exerted,  and  should  not  be  eternally  dormant. 
Tis  true  tis  from  an  excellent  disposition  of  the  heart  of 

52 


APPENDIX    I. 

God,  that  God  seeks  occasion  to  exercise  his  goodness 
and  bounty,  and  also  his  Wisdom,  Justice,  Truth;  and 
this  in  one  word  is  a  disposition  to  glorify  himself,  ac- 
cording to  the  Scripture  sense  of  such  an  expression,  or 
a  disposition  to  express  and  communicate  himself  ad  extra. 

I  know  there  is  an  inconsistency  in  supposing  that  God 
inclines  to  exercise  goodness,  and  do  Good  to  others, 
meerly  for  the  sake  of  the  Honour  of  his  Goodness  ;  for 
the  very  notion  of  Goodness  is  an  Inclination  of  Heart  to 
do  good  to  others.  And  therefore,  the  Existence  of  such 
an  Inclination  must  be  conceived  of  as  prior  to  an  Incli- 
nation to  Honour  it.  There  must  first  be  an  Inclination 
of  Heart  to  do  good,  before  God  desires  to  honour  that 
Inclination,  So  in  like  manner  it  is  an  inconsistence  to 
suppose  that  God  is  inclined  to  Exercise  Justice,  and  do 
justly,  only  for  the  sake  of  the  Honour  of  his  Justice  ;  for 
Justice  itself  is  an  Inclination  to  do  justly,  which  must 
exist  before  God  is  inclined  to  honour  it.  Therefore 
God's  glorifying  Himself  —  that  glorifying  Himself, 
which  is  the  End  of  the  creation  —  is  a  different  thing 
from  properly  seeking  his  Honour. 

They,  that  suppose  God's  inclination  to  make  occasions 
for  the  doing  Good,  or  communicating  Happiness,  by 
giving  being  to  capable  subjects  of  it,  to  be  what  is 
properly  called  God's  Goodness,  seem  to  have  a  Notion 
of  a  bountiful  disposition  in  the  Heart  of  God,  disposed 
to  increase  the  sum  of  Happiness,  which  is  to  be  found 
in  the  universality  of  Existence.  But  there  is  no  such 
Thing.  Man's  Benevolence  and  Bounty,  taking  his  own 
Good,  and  the  Good  of  the  Person  benefitted  by  Him  to- 
gether, increases  the  sum  of  Good ;  and  therefore  tis 
more  easy  to  conceive  of  a  benevolent  Disposition  in  a 
Creature  wishing  for  the  being  of  new  subjects  of  Kind- 
ness, because  the  Goodness  of  his  Nature  causes  Him  to 
love  to  see  a  great  deal  of  Happiness. 

S3 


APPENDIX    I. 

But  God  sees  no  more  by  making  creatures  that  they 
may  be  happy. 

He  hath  in  his  Son  an  adequate  object  for  all  the  de- 
sires of  this  kind  that  are  in  his  Heart,  and  in  his  Infinite 
Happiness,  he  sees  as  much  Happiness  as  can  be  when 
new  beings  are  made  that  are  infinitely  less,  and  there  is 
opportunity  to  do  them  good,  God  sees  not  the  sum  of 
happiness  increased. 

The  more  proper  Notion  signified  by  all  such  words  as 
Goodness,  Kindness,  Bounty,  Favour,  Grace,  etc.,  includes 
Love,  Benevolence  or  Good  will,  but  this  is  not  properly 
Love  or  Good  will  that  has  the  Existence  of  the  object 
loved  first  supposed.  A  disposition  to  make  an  object 
that  it  may  be  loved,  and  that  we  may  have  good  will 
towards  must  be  prior  to  another,  and  properly  distinct 
from  Love  and  Goodwill  itself.  It  may  be  an  ex- 
cellent Quality,  but  it  must  be  Quality  of  some  other 
denomination  :  if  it  be  called  Goodness  and  Grace  it  must 
be  in  a  less  proper  sense.  To  desire  new  beings  to  com- 
municate happiness  to  'em,  especially  without  increasing 
the  sum  of  Happiness,  dont  agree  with  the  notion 
mankind  have  of  Goodness,  Benevolence,  Grace,  etc. 
Men  may  call  this  disposition  in  the  Heart  of  God  by  the 
name  of  Goodness,  if  they  please ;  but  tis  properly  re- 
ferred to  another  Perfection  of  which  it  is  one  sort  of 
exercise ;  viz.,  the  disposition  that  is  in  the  Infinite 
Fountain  of  Good  and  of  Glory,  and  Excellency,  to  shine 
forth,  or  flow  out ;  which  shining  forth  or  flowing  out  of 
God's  infinite  fulness,  is  called  God's  Glory  in  Scripture. 

Indeed  God,  in  making  the  creature  happy,  seems  as  it 
were  to  express,  or  exhibit  himself  ad  extra,  two  ways. 
Not  only  does  one  of  his  perfections  exercise  itself  in  it, 
viz.,  his  Goodness ;  but  there  is  something  of  God 
actually  communicated,  some  of  that  Good  that  is  in  God, 

54 


APPENDIX    I. 

that  the  creature  hereby  has  communion  in,  viz.,  God's 
Happiness :  the  creature  partakes  of  the  happinesss  of 
God,  at  least  an  image  of  it.  And  we  must  therefore 
conceive  that  there  is  a  disposition  in  God  not  only  to 
exercise  his  attributes  and  perfections  in  this,  but  also  to 
communicate  of  his  divine  good.  But  then  it  is  to  be 
considered  that  God  does  not  only  communicate  of 
happiness,  but  also  his  holiness,  and  his  understanding, 
and  power,  or  an  image  of  these  ;  and  we  must  conceive 
that  there  is  truly  a  disposition  in  God  to  communicate 
of  these,  as  well  as  his  happiness  ;  which  general  dis- 
position, though  in  itself  excellent,  seems  to  be  a  dis- 
position besides  the  goodness  of  God,  or  at  least  is  called 
so  in  a  less  proper  sense,  and  in  a  more  extensive  sense 
than  that  which  is  more  frequently  called  God's  goodness. 
But  although  there  are  several  kinds  of  good  in  God, 
that  are  communicated,  and  though  according  to  our 
manner  of  conceiving  things  there  are  two  ways  of  God's 
exhibiting  himself  ad  extra  :  i.  His  perfections  that  we 
conceive  to  be  an  active  nature  are  exercised  ad  extra ; 
as  his  power,  wisdom,  justice,  goodness,  holiness  ;  2.  The 
Good  that  is  in  him  is  communicated  ad  extra ;  and, 
though  this  good  be  of  various  kinds  according  to  our 
manner  of  conceiving,  yet  as  all  this  good  that  is  in  God, 
of  whatever  kind,  belongs  to  his  essential  glory  and 
brightness,  and  there  is  the  same  fitness  that  each  part  of 
this  brightness  or  glory  should  shine  forth  in  every  pos- 
sible way,  and  be  both  exercised  and  communicated,  and 
that  all  this  good  should  flow  out,  and  that  God  is  dis- 
posed that  each  part  should  do  so,  may  well  be  referred 
to  one  general  disposition,  and  the  effect  may  well  be 
called  by  one  name,  viz.,  God's  Glory  :  Ao^a.   1133- 

Both  these  dispositions  of  exerting  himself  and  com- 
municating himself,  may  be  reduced  to  one,  viz.,  a  dis- 

55 


APPENDIX    I. 

position  effectually  to  exert  himself,  or  to  exert  himself 
in  order  to  an  effect.  That  effect  is  the  communication  of 
himself,  or  himself  ad  extra,  which  is  what  is  called  his 
glory.  This  communication  is  of  two  sorts  :  the  com. 
munication  that  consists  in  understanding  or  idea,  which 
is  summed  up  in  the  knowledge  of  God ;  and  the  other  is 
in  the  will  consisting  in  love  and  joy,  which  may  be 
summed  up  in  the  love  and  enjoyment  of  God.  Thus 
that  which  proceeds  from  God  ad  extra  is  agreeable  to 
the  twofold  subsistences  which  proceed  from  him  ad  intra 
which  is  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Spirit :  the  Son  being  the 
idea  of  God,  or  the  knowledge  of  God ;  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  which   is  the  love  of  God  and  joy  in  God. 

Although  the  things  which  God  inclines  to  and  aims  at, 
are  in  some  respects  two,  viz.,  exercising  or  exerting  the 
perfections  of  his  nature,  and  the  effect  of  that,  viz.,  com- 
municating himself;  yet  these  may  be  reduced  to  one, 
viz.,  God's  exerting  himself  in  order  to  the  effect.  The 
exertion  and  the  effect  ought  not  to  be  separated,  as 
though  they  were  two  ends  ;  one  is  so  related  to  the 
other,  and  they  are  so  united  that  they  are  most  properly 
taken  together  as  one  end,  and  the  object  of  one  in- 
clination in  God ;  for  tis  not  an  ineifectual  exertion  that 
God  aims  at,  or  inclines  to,  and  God  in  aiming  at  these 
makes  himself  his  end.  Tis  Himself  exerted,  and 
Himself  communicated  ;  and  both  together  are  what  is 
called  God's  Glory.  The  end,  or  the  thing  which  God 
attains,  is  Himself,  in  two  respects.  He  himself  flows 
forth  ;  and  He  Him[self]  is  pleased  and  gratified :  for 
God's  pleasure  all  things  are,  and  were  created. 

God  has  made  intelligent  creatures  capable  of  being 
concerned  in  these  effects,  as  being  the  willing  active 
subjects,  or  means ;  and  so  they  are  capable  of  actively 
promoting  God's  glory.  And  this  is  what  they  ought  to 
make  their  ultimate  end  in  all  things." 

S6 


APPENDIX    I. 

"  1266.  Glory  of  God,  the  End  Of  the  Creation.  God's 
Glory,  as  it  is  spoken  of  in  scripture,  as  the  End  of  all 
God's  works,  is,  in  one  word,  The  Emanation  of  that 
Fulness  of  God,  that  is  from  Eternity  in  God,  ad  extra, 
and  towards  those  Creatures  that  are  capable  of  being 
sensible  and  active  objects  of  such  an  Emanation.  It 
consists  in  communicating  Himself  to  those  two  Faculties 
of  the  Understanding  and  will  ;  by  which  Faculties  it  is, 
that  Creatures  are  sensible  and  active  objects,  or  subjects, 
of  divine  Emanations,  and  communications. 

God  communicates  himself  to  the  understanding  in  the 
manifestation  that  is  made  of  the  divine  Excellency  ;  and 
the  understanding.  Idea,  or  view,  which  Intelligent 
creatures  have  of  it.  He  communicates  his  Glory  and 
Fulness  to  the  wills  of  sensible,  willing,  active  beings 
in  their  rejoicing  in  the  manifested  Glory  of  God  ;  in  their 
admiring  it ;  in  their  loving  God  for  it,  and  being  in  all 
respects  affected  and  disposed  suitably  to  such  Glory, 
and  their  exercising  and  expressing  those  affections 
and  dispositions  wherein  consists  their  Praising  and 
Glorifying  God ;  and  in  their  being  themselves  holy, 
and  having  the  Image  of  this  Glory  in  their  Hearts,  and 
as  it  were  reflecting  it  as  a  Jewel  does  the  Light  of  the 
Sun,  and  as  it  were  partaking  of  God's  Brightness  ;  and 
in  their  being  Happy  in  God,  whereby  they  partake  of 
God's  Fulness  of  Happiness. 

This  twofold  Emanation  or  communication  of  the 
divine  Fulness  ad  extra  is  answerable  to  the  twofold 
Emanation  or  going  forth  of  the  Godhead  ad  intra  ; 
wherein  the  internal  and  Essential  Glory  and  Fulness  of 
the  Godhead  consists  :  viz.,  the  Proceeding  of  the  Eternal 
Son  of  God,  God's  Eternal  Idea  and  infinite  under- 
standing and  wisdom,  and  the  Brightness  of  his  Glory, 
whereby  his  Beauty  and  Excellency  appears  to  Him  ;  and 

SI 


APPENDIX    I. 

the  Proceeding  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  or  the  Eternal  will, 
Temper,  disposition  of  the  Deity,  the  infinite  Fulness  of 
God's  Holiness,  Joy,  and  Delight." 

"  1275.  That  Glory  of  God,  that  is  the  End  of  God's 
Works,  is  not  only  a  manifestation  of  his  Excellency,  but 
a  communication  of  his  happiness.  Goodwin's  Works, 
Vol.  I,  Part  2,  p.  246,  on  Happiness.  Words,  Eph.  ii,  7, 
"  It  implies  that  God  will  rejoice  over  you  in  glorifying  of 
you.  It  imports  that  he  will  not  do  it  merely  to  show  his 
riches,  as  Ahasuerus  made  a  feast  and  invited  all  his 
nobles,  to  show  the  riches  of  his  glorious  kingdom.  God 
indeed  will  bring  us  to  heaven,  and  show  the  exceeding 
riches  of  his  grace ;  and  that  is  the  chiefest  end  he  aims 
at.  But  now  Ahasuerus  did  not  do  this  in  kindness. 
But  God,  as  he  will  there  show  forth  the  exceeding  riches 
of  his  grace,  yi^r  the  glorifying  of  it,  so  he  will  do  it  in  all 
the  sweetness  and  kindness  that  your  souls  can  desire  or 
expect." 

Ibid.  p.  250.  "  It  hath  been  questioned  by  some, 
Whether  the  first  moving  cause  to  move  God  to  go  forth 
to  save  men  was  the  manifesting  his  own  glory,  or  his 
kindness  and  love  to  men,  which  he  was  pleased  to  take 
up  towards  them.  I  have  heard  it  argued  with  much 
appearance  of  strength,  That,  however  God  indeed  in  the 
way  of  saving  men  carries  it  as  becomes  a  God,  so  as  his 
own  glory  and  grace  shall  have  the  pre-eminence,  yet  that 
which  first  moved  him,  that  which  did  give  the  occasion 
to  him  to  go  forth  in  the  manifestation  of  himself  which 
else  he  needed  not,  was  rather  kindness  to  us  than  his 
own  glory ;  yet  so  as  if  he  resolved  out  of  kindness  and 
love  to  us  to  manifest  himself  at  all  he  would  do  it  like  a 
God,  and  he  would  show  forth  the  exceeding  riches  of 
his  grace,  as  that  that  alone  should  be  magnified.  Now 
the  truth  is  the  text  (Eph.  ii.  7)  compounds   the  business, 

58 


APPENDIX    I. 

and  doth  tell  us  plainly  and  truly,  that  the  chief  end  is 
that  God  should  glorify  his  own  grace.  It  puts  the  chief 
and  original  end  upon  the  showing  forth  the  exceeding 
riches  of  his  grace  ;  Yet  so  as  that  he  hath  attempered 
and  conjoined  therewith  the  greatest  kindness,  the  great- 
est loving  affection  in  the  way  of  manifesting  of  it,  so  as 
in  the  way  of  carrying  it.  It  shall  appear  it  is  not  simply 
to  glorify  himself,  but  out  of  kindness  towards  us,  he  puts 
that  in  as  that  which  shall  run  along  with  all  the  mani- 
festation of  his  own  glory.  And  therefore  now  he  makes 
in  the  4th  verse  mercy  and  great  love  to  us,  to  be  as  well 
the  fountain  and  foundation  of  our  salvation  as  the  mani- 
festation of  the  riches  of  his  grace  here." 

Ibid.  p.  253.  "  Because  the  chief  and  utmost  thing 
that  God  desireth  is  the  manifestation  of  the  riches  of  his 
grace,  it  argues,  that  his  end  of  manifesting  himself  was 
not  wholly  for  himself,  but  to  communicate  unto  others 
why  ?  because  grace  is  wholly  communicative.  There 
can  be  no  other  interpretation  of  showing  the  riches  of 
his  grace  but  to  do  good  unto  others.  If  he  had  said 
that  the  supreme  end  had  been  the  manifestation  of  his 
power  and  wisdom,  it  might  have  imported  something  he 
would  have  gotten  from  the  creature ;  not  by  communi- 
cating anything  unto  them,  but  by  manifesting  these  upon 
them.  He  could  have  showed  his  power  and  wisdom 
upon  them,  as  he  hath  done  upon  the  men  he  hath  cast 
into  hell  and  yet  have  communicated  no  blessedness  to 
them.  No,  saith  God,  My  highest  and  chief  end  is  not  so 
much  to  get  anything  from  you,  but  to  show  forth  the 
riches  of  my  grace  towards  you.  Thus,  look  at  faith 
which  is  the  highest  grace  in  us  ;  it  is  merely  a  receiving 
grace  from  God.  So  take  grace,  which  is  the  chief  thing 
God  would  exalt;  what  is  it  from  God,  a  mere  bestowing, 
communicating  property  and  attribute.     It  imports  noth- 

59 


APPENDIX    I. 

ing  else  but  a  communication  unto  us.  It  is  well  there- 
fore for  us,  that  God  hath  made  the  highest  end  of  our 
salvation  in  himself  (when  he  will  aim  at  himself  too)  to 
be  that  which  shall  communicate  all  to  us.  It  is,  saith 
the  text,  to  show  forth  the  riches  of  his  grace." 

Ibid  :  Part  3,  p.  63.  "  Our  allwise  and  infinitely  blessed 
Lord  who  had,  from  everlasting,  riches  of  glorious  per- 
fections, which,  though  he  himself  knew,  and  was  in- 
finitely blessed  in  the  knowledge  of  them,  though  no  saint 
or  angel  had  ever  been  or  ever  knew  them  ;  yet  all  these 
his  glorious  perfections  being  crowned  with  goodness, 
have  made  him  willing  to  make  known  what  riches  of 
glory  were  in  him  unto  some  creatures  which  yet  were  in 
Christ.  His  goodness  moved  him  to  it.  For  Bonum  est 
sui  communicatio, — and  it  is  the  nature  of  perfection  also 
to  be  manifestatio  sui.  And  that  not  because  any  per- 
fection is  added  to  it  when  made  known,  but  that  they 
might  perfect  others.  This  set  Him  upon  some  ways  to 
make  known  his  riches  and  his  glory  to  some  that  should 
be  made  happy  by  it ;  and  to  that  end  he  would  have 
saints,  (his  saints  as  being  beloved  of  him)  unto  whom 
he  might  as  it  were  unbosom  himself,  and  display  all  the 
riches  of  glory  that  are  in  him  ;  into  whose  laps  he  might 
withal  pour  out  all  his  riches,  that  they  might  see  his 
glory,  and  be  glorified  in  seeing  of  it.      John  xvii,  3,  24." 


60 


APPENDIX  II. 


LOAN  EXHIBITION 

Not  the  least  interesting  part  of  the  Bicentenary  was 
the  exhibition,  in  Bartlet  Chapel,  of  many  autograph 
and  published  writings  of  Edwards  and  other  objects  of 
historical  interest,  partly  in  the  possession  of  the  Semi- 
nary, and  partly  loaned  by  friends  for  this  special 
occasion.  The  books  were  in  large  part  from  the 
Seminary  Library,  but  several  of  the  most  interesting 
came  from  the  Congregational  Library  of  Boston,  the 
Boston  Public  Library,  and  the  Library  of  Harvard 
University.  The  manuscripts  were  mainly  from  the 
collection  of  Professor  E.  C.  Smyth.  Other  objects  were 
loaned  by  Professor  Smyth  and  Miss  Park,  of  Andover, 
Dr.  H.  C.  Hovey,  of  Newburyport,  Mrs.  A.  C.  Stone,  of 
Lawrence,  and  the  Rev.  Calvin  M.  Clark,  of  Haverhill. 
To  all  these  friends  the  thanks  of  the  Seminary  are  hereby 
extended  for  their  kind  co-operation  in  making  the  ex- 
hibition a  success. 

The  following  list  includes  the  most  interesting  of  the 
objects  exhibited,  leaving  out  the  books  :  — 

A  sketch  of  the  life  of  Richard  Edwards,  of  Hartford, 
by  his  son,  the  Rev.  Timothy  Edwards. 

Letter  from  Mrs.  Solomon  Stoddard  to  her  daughter, 
Mrs.  Timothy  Edwards,  after  the  birth  of  her  son, 
Jonathan. 

Letter  from  the  Rev.  Timothy  Edwards  to  his  son, 
Jonathan,  dated  Feb.  13,  17 16. 

Letter  from  Rector  Cutler,  of  Yale,  to  Timothy  Ed- 
wards, congratulating  him  on  the  good  qualities  of  his 
son,  dated  June  30,  17 19. 

61 


APPENDIX    II. 

Unpublished  letter  of  Edwards  to  his  father,  dated  at 
Yale  College,  March  i,  1721. 

Various  treatises  in  manuscript,  including,  Of  the 
Rainbow ;  Of  Insects,  being  the  first  draft  of  Edwards's 
account  of  The  Flying  Spider ;  The  Flying  Spider,  and 
draft  of  a  letter  to  a  gentleman  in  England  accompanying 
the  same  ;  Notes  on  Science,  with  specimens  of  short- 
hand writing  and  of  illustrative  figures  ;  On  the  Soul ; 
Of  Being,  written  while  a  college  student ;  Manuscripts 
relating  to  Qualifications  for  Communion,  and  Prophecies 
of  the  Messiah. 

Leaves  from  Edwards's  Hebrew  Bible,  containing  his 
family  record. 

Notes  of  sermons  preached  to  the  Mohawk  Indians  in 
Stockbridge,  in  January  and  February,  1751. 

Letter  to  the  Rev.  Joseph  Bellamy,  dated  Canaan,  Nov. 
5,  1750,  concerning  a  proposed  sale  of  sheep,  occasioned 
by  Edwards's  enforced  resignation  of  his  Northampton 
parish. 

Numerous  letters  from  the  later  years  of  his  life. 

Notes  from  which  Edwards  preached  his  farewell 
sermon  to  the  Stockbridge  Indians,  Jan.  8,  1758,  just 
before  his  removal  to  Princeton. 

Letter  of  Dr.  Shippen,  the  attending  physician,  an- 
nouncing the  death  of  Edwards  to  his  wife.  Written 
from  Princeton,  March  22,  1758. 

Letter  from  Mrs.  Edwards  to  her  daughter,  Susanna, 
after  the  death  of  Edwards.     Written  April  3,  1758. 

A  Latin  Dictionary  belonging  to  Sarah  Pierpont,  who 
became  Mrs.  Edwards ;  a  piece  of  her  wedding  dress  ;  a 
wrought  iron  tray,  supposed  to  be  one  of  her  wedding 
presents  ;  the  manuscript  containing  an  account  of  Mrs. 
Edwards's  religious  experiences  of  Jan.  19,  1742,  nar- 
rated by  her  to  her  husband,  and  recorded  by  him. 

62 


APPENDIX    II. 

Copy  of  a  Covenant  entered  into  by  the  people  of  God 
at  Northampton,  March  i6,  1 741-2  ;  a  fragment  of  the 
cloth  used  with  the  communion  service  at  Northampton 
during  Edwards's  pastorate. 

Numerous  sermons,  notes  and  plans  for  sermons,  show- 
ing his  shorthand  writing,  and  his  economy  in  making  use 
of  newspaper  margins,  fragments  of  letters,  pulpit  notices, 
proclamations,  and  especially  scraps  of  paper  left  by  his 
daughters  from  their  manufacture  of  fans. 

A  Note  Book  of  "  Things  to  be  particularly  enquired 
into  and  written  upon  ". 

A  letter  to  the  Rev.  John  Erskine  of  Kirkintilloch, 
Scotland,  in  which  Edwards  speaks  of  his  thoughts  of 
writing  on  the  Freedom  of  the  Will  and  Moral  Agency. 
It  is  dated  Northampton,  Jan.  22,  1746-7. 

A  silver  bowl  or  porringer,  inscribed  with  the  names  of 
its  various  owners,  viz.  Pres't  Jonathan  Edwards,  Hon. 
Timothy  Edwards,  Phoebe  (Edwards)  Hooker,  Edward 
W.  Hooker,  Edward  T.  Hooker.  By  will  of  Edward  W. 
Hooker  the  porringer  must  thereafter  go  to  an  orthodox 
Congregational  clergyman  in  direct  descent.  Loaned  by 
the  present  owner,  the  Rev.  Calvin  M.  Clark,  of  Haverhill. 


63 


APPENDIX    II. 

CONGRATULATORY  MESSAGE 

To   the    Committee   of  Arrangemefits  for    celebrating    the 

Bicentenary  of  the  Reverend  fonathan  Edwards,  M.A. 

The  Senatus  of  the  Glasgow  College  of  the  United 
Free  Church  of  Scotland  have  deputed  their  colleague, 
the  Reverend  James  Orr,  D.D.,  to  represent  them  at  the 
celebration  of  the  Bicentenary  of  the  celebrated  Jonathan 
Edwards  within  your  theological  Seminary.  Our  Senatus 
gladly  unites  with  you  in  doing  honour  to  one  of  the 
earliest  of  renowned  American  Theologians,  whose  pre- 
eminent abilities  were  recognized  in  his  life-time  not 
only  in  the  land  of  his  birth  but  throughout  Great  Britain 
and  Germany,  and  whose  writings,  more  especially  his 
Treatise  on  the  Freedom  of  the  Will,  his  work  on  the 
Doctrine  of  Original  Sin,  and  above  all  his  Treatise  on 
the  Religious  Affections,  have  taken  and  must  always 
retain  a  place  among  the  theological  master-pieces  of 
earlier  generations. 

The  Senatus  congratulate  the  Andover  Theological 
Seminary,  so  justly  celebrated  among  American  Schools 
of  Divinity,  on  this  celebration,  and  they  see  a  peculiar 
fitness  in  a  Seminary,  so  well  known  for  its  theological 
activity  in  the  present,  summoning  around  it  theologians 
from  all  lands  to  do  honour  to  one  of  the  greatest  theo- 
logians of  the  past. 

The  Senatus  send  cordial  fraternal  greetings  and  desire 
to  express  every  wish  for  the  success  of  the  Meetings  to 
be  held  on  the  fifth  of  October. 

In  the  Name  and  by  the  Authority  of  the  Senatus 

(signed)    Thomas  M.  Lindsay, 

Principal. 
College  of  the  United  Free  Church  of  Scotland, 
Glasgow,  June  9,  1903. 

64 


APPENDIX    II. 


REPLY  TO  THE  CONGRATULATORY  MESSAGE 

To  the  Reverend  Thomas  M.  Lmdsay,  D.D.,  Principal 
of  the  Glasgow  College  of  the  Ufiited  Free  Church 
of  Scotland,   Greeting : 

The  Faculty  of  Andover  Theological  Seminary  take 
pleasure  in  acknowledging  the  congratulatory  message  of 
the  Senatus  of  Glasgow  College,  received  on  the  occasion 
of  the  two-hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Jonathan 
Edwards,  to  be  observed  on  October  fifth.  They  highly 
value  and  cordially  reciprocate  the  fraternal  good  wishes 
therein  expressed.  They  also  gratefully  acknowledge 
their  indebtedness  to  Glasgow  College  a.nd  the  United 
Free  Church  of  Scotland  for  the  favoring  presence  in 
Andover,  at  the  approaching  Bicentenary,  of  an  honored 
representative  of  modern  Scotch  Theology,  the  Reverend 
Professor  James  Orr,  D.D.,  whose  name  lends  distinction 
to  the  order  of  proceedings,  and  whose  address  is  certain 
largely  to  enhance  their  historical  value. 

Adopted  at  a  meeting  of  the  Faculty,  held  in  Andover, 
on  the  sixteenth  day  of  September,  Nineteen  Hundred 
and  Three. 

(signed)    Charles  Orrin  Day, 

President. 


65 


Date  Due 


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^'  If 


